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Edinburgh-based Cockerill delivers 'passion' message to England

By PA
(Photo by Craig Williamson/SNS Group via Getty Images)

Richard Cockerill has insisted that England are ready to match Scottish passion in Saturday’s Calcutta Cup clash as they aim to launch the Steve Borthwick era with a triumph at Twickenham. England have not won at home in the fixture since 2017 and have managed a solitary victory in the last five meetings, although they are still backed by bookmakers to make a successful start to the Guinness Six Nations.

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Former Edinburgh boss Cockerill, the only surviving assistant from Eddie Jones’ England management team, knows the fury that will be brought by Scotland, having faced them twice as a combative hooker in the late 1990s. But the forwards coach insists they will be met head-on with the rivals separated only by the quality of their play.

“I can assure you that we will have enough passion to match the Scots’ passion. Then it will be down to who plays the best rugby,” the former Leicester hooker said. “When I was a player, it was the rivalry and realising how competitive the Scots are against the English. I still live in Edinburgh so I see that every day.

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Steve Borthwick responds to reporter on why he didn’t start Manu Tuilagi

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Steve Borthwick responds to reporter on why he didn’t start Manu Tuilagi

“It’s a huge game. We know it means a lot to Scotland and it means a hell of a lot to us as an England team. The rivalry is going to be keen. They are a good side and are going to be confident coming here because they have had a great record against us in the last few years. So we have got everything to do.”

Ollie Hassell-Collins will make his debut on the left wing as part of a reshaped team that has seen players who were frozen out under Jones – the likes of Max Malins, Alex Dombrandt and Ben Earl – return to the fold.

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Even a place on the bench eludes Manu Tuilagi after he was dropped for the first time in his England career while Marcus Smith and Owen Farrell continue the playmaking 10/12 axis that has fired only in brief spurts. Jones’ priority had been delivering at the World Cup, the latest instalment of which arrives this autumn, but the new regime has adopted a narrower focus.

“We are here to win first and foremost. It’s the most important thing and what we get judged on. We want to see signs of what we have been working on and how we build our game,” Borthwick said. “I’ll take the win because that is what we are here for. I’m all about winning: playing for England and coaching England is all about winning. But I have a feeling it won’t be 3-0.

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“We want to be a positive team who play a positive brand of rugby that wins England the game. We have enough quality on the field to deal with what is in front of us. We want to play with passion, pride and effort and show what it means to play for England.”

An area of urgent attention for Cockerill is the England scrum after a dismal 2022 that yielded only five wins in 12 Tests was compounded by the indignity of also possessing the worst-performing scrum of any tier-one nation.

“Certainly our set piece has to be a lot better. Our scrum hasn’t been good enough and that’s something we need to improve, both in terms of the relationships with the referee and how we actually go about our business,” Cockerill said. “Our set-piece parts have to be a lot better if we’re going to compete at this level and win games at this level.”

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B
BleedRed&Black 27 minutes ago
Who is telling the truth about France's tour of New Zealand?

You missed all the hookers,


Lamothe 1482 30 games

Marchand 1321 29 games

Mauvaka 982 21 games


What evades you, and all the other propagandists/apologists for French rugby, is that of the 23 players identified from the 6N squad as being left at home, only five are out with injury. [I'll take you on your word for that] The other 18 are either eligible or have been ruled out because they have played "too many games" before the end of season tour. Yet all these players are not on the supposed 25 game limit. They are over it, most well over. Some have played thirty games. Read your own figures. Draw the obvious conclusion.


The fact that those players are already over the 25 game limit demonstrates that the 25 game limit is a lie, a propaganda device only applied to end of season tours, not to France's club rugby, where it is regularly and at times grossly breached. The French system reserves all the minutes and all the games for its club rugby, for the 6 Nations, for the Autumn internationals, and even then it is flexible to the point of meaninglessness, as the matches and minutes likes of Ramos have racked have demonstrated. Reciprocal internationals to the south means nothing to French rugby. No space is given to them, no significance is attached. They are a burden to the French game, a diversion from the soap opera, something that French rugby treats with the contempt it believes they deserve.


Its one thing to be forced to accept the decisions of the powerful. Its another thing altogether to believe their lies.

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t
takata 35 minutes ago
Who is telling the truth about France's tour of New Zealand?

All French Rugby pro contracts (players are all contacted with their club and not with the French Federation), following the demand from their player association, are including a clause about resting players:

- after 6 consecutive weeks, one should rest one week.

- each summer, they should have 6 consecutive weeks of rest.


Now, take into account the fact that the championship will finish at the end of June and will restart in early september ; with a few weeks of preparation in August, there isn’t much left for the “summer friendlies” without impacting the early club season ; it’s even worse for Pro D2 which start earlier.


Beside, those “tests” are really considered “frendlies” and, unless something like last year in Argentina happened to draw general public attention into it, nobody really care about them in France (barely no press or tv). I’m following Rugby for almost 50 years (club and national team) and I can’t remember having watched a single summer game in my life while I’ve never missed a single 5/6 Nations, a world cup or the Championships’ playoff.


The Top 14 format didn’t change during the last 20 years and it’s not going to change any time soon (and it certainly wasn’t any better before 2005). The clubs are not franchised and will be relegated to Pro D2 if they are not competitive enough from the start. If this happen, it just might kill them financially.

284 Go to comments
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