1
'He scared me' - John Mitchell's influence as England defence coach
By Online Editors
England defence coach John Mitchell has been praised for his role in making England a genuine World Cup threat by former England midfielder Will Greenwood.
Greenwood, who won the World Cup in 2003, told Radio Sport that Mitchell was continually tweaking England's defensive strategies in a grand scheme to make the Eddie Jones-coached side the most "ferocious defensive unit" on the planet.
"When Eddie Jones took over in January 2016, they wanted to make themselves the most ferocious defensive unit on the planet," he said.
"They are not there yet but are doing a pretty passable impression of it at the moment. It is ferocious out there.
"Life is about iterations, tweaking, adapting. They are not changing anything massively. They wanted line speed and have worked on it really well."
Greenwood, capped 57 times internationally, was coached by Mitchell in the late 1990s when he assisted then-England head coach Sir Clive Woodward, and the 46-year-old revealed how intimidating the former All Blacks coach was.
"He used to always say 'let the dog be the rabbit' in a slightly different tone," said Greenwood.
"It scared the living daylights out of me and certainly introduced to me what life was like in New Zealand in terms of the ferocity of your rucking. He was proper, proper tough."
Following England's impressive run in the Six Nations in the opening two rounds, Greenwood remained quietly optimistic of their World Cup chances come the end of the year, although he refused to discount the threats posed by New Zealand and Ireland.
"The All Blacks have set the bar in terms of of retaining credibility as the number one. Ireland had the most unbelievable year in 2018 but they are having a bit of a blip, a bit of a wobble.
"England were supercharged and went out and battered them on the gain line, but Ireland will come again.
"Ireland will finish the Six Nations strong and be ready for the World Cup. They had such a big year in 2018 and it is difficult to keep going to the well. But they will be a force to be reckoned with in Japan.
"I've upgraded England's status — they will be in the semifinals and who can predict after that?"
Eddie Jones and Owen Farrell on facing Wales:
Trending on RugbyPass
2
'He was the one guy who truly kept Semi Radradra under wraps'
3
The simple way to prove Boks also hold the 'unofficial world title'
4
Le mercato XXL d'Oyonnax pour la saison prochaine
5
Latest Comments
Interesting comments about Touch. England’s hosting the Touch World Cup this year and the numbers have exploded since their last World Cup in 2019, something like 70% more teams and 40 nations taking part. And England Touch have made a big thing about how many universities are in their BUCS University Touch Championship as well as Sport England membership. Can only see this growing even more domestically as more people become aware of it
Go to comments“Cortez Ratima is light years ahead of anyone on current form, while TJ Perenara has also skyrocketed into contention following the unfortunate injury to the talented Cam Roigard.” At last some sanity. Hitherto so many pundits have been wittering on about Finlay Christie to the point one wondered if they were observing a FC in a parallel universe where the FC they saw wasnt just the mediocre Shayne Philpott project of Fosters hapless AB reign in the real world. Ratima, Perenara and Fakatava are the ONLY logical 9s for Razor now Roigard is crocked.
Go to comments