Flank statement: How Curry and Underhill compare to Cane and Savea
Flankers Tom Curry and Sam Underhill have been marked out among England’s key players for Saturday’s World Cup semi-final against New Zealand.
The pair, both playing in their first World Cup, have been dubbed the “kamikaze kids” by England coach Eddie Jones with their hard-tackling style helping to set the tone in defence.
Here, the PA news agency takes a statistical look at their impact and the task awaiting them in Yokohama.
The kamikaze kids
Curry and Underhill have excelled for England at the World Cup so far, with the former named man of the match in Saturday’s quarter-final win over Australia.
He produced eye-catching plays both without the ball – a turnover followed moments later by a crunching tackle on wing Reece Hodge – and with it, entering the line to send Jonny May in for the opening try.
That is just a microcosm of the blindside flanker’s work, though, with 46 tackles in his four games, 27 carries for 68 metres, 15 passes and an offload with just two handling errors.
Underhill has been similarly tenacious, matching Curry’s tackle count of 46 despite playing one game fewer – the pair have combined for a 90 per cent tackle success rate. The openside has also gained over 50 metres despite carrying only 12 times.
Here comes the crunch
Impressive as the England pair have been, they – along with number eight Billy Vunipola – are now set to go up against arguably the best back row in the tournament, with Kiwi captain Kieran Read at number eight and Ardie Savea and Sam Cane either side of him.
The two All Blacks flankers have a combined tackle success rate of 95 per cent, with openside Cane making 31 in three games and Savea 24 in four.
While those raw numbers are lower than for their England counterparts, that may be largely a product of New Zealand’s control of possession – also reflected in their combined 38 passes and 41 carries, with Savea racking up a hefty 151 metres and beating 11 defenders.
The good news is England have already faced a similar test in Australia’s David Pocock and Michael Hooper and come through with flying colours.
Having admittedly played a game more – Pocock five and Hooper four – the Wallaby pair have combined for 82 carries for 213 yards, 66 tackles at a 95 per cent success rate and 31 passes, but could not see their team past England.
At number eight, Read outshines Vunipola 36-26 in the tackle count and has a slightly higher success rate. Their carry numbers are similar, 38-36 in Vunipola’s favour, with their different styles reflected in Vunipola leading 94-59 in metres and Read by 27 passes to 14.
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Skelton may be brought back for the Wallabies so that would be the only reason that may hinder Wilson. Easily the form, most skilful and game IQ of any Oz 8. Valentini’s best and favourite position is 6, but lineouts may be an issue with Skelton, Valentini and Wilson. Will be interesting what Schmidt goes for but for me Wilson should be picked on form. Schmidt rewards work rate, skill and consistency. All that glitters every so often won’t be in contention. Greely is one of those players that has a knack of making the right decision. A coach is going to love him because he knows week in week out he’s going to get the job done. The second try Greely wasn’t the guy who made the initial break it was Flook, Greely was at the bottom of the ruck when Flook was off along the sideline. Greely got up and made the effort to catch up with play but also read the play nicely and hit the pass from Campbell at pace and then held the pass beautifully to Ryan.
Go to commentsSharks deserved to be far further back by the last quarter. Their tackling was awful, their set pieces were disappointing, their defensive organization was poor (especially on the Kok side of the D line), they kept making unnecessary errors, and they never looked like cracking the Clermont defense during those first 60m. Masuku kept them in touch, with some help from the Clermont generosity on penalty opportunities. Agree with the writer of this article. It was belligerence, and ability to raise their pressure game just enough, that turned the last quarter into a Bok-style shutout. Clermont have a reputation of not playing the full 80m, and there was a bit of that for sure. But, quite often when the intensity of a team drops off in the last quarter credit is due to the opponent for tiring them out. At 60m, with the Kok try, you thought that just maybe the game was on. At 70m, with the Mapimpi contribution, one felt that Clermont were fading, while facing a team that would maintain the pressure game through the final whistle. Good win in the end, but the Sharks are still playing way below their potential. And with their resources, and a coach that has had enough time to figure things out, they are running out of excuses.
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