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Henry Arundell reveals plans for England future after loss to Bath
By Grant Constable
Henry Arundell's Racing 92 suffered an away loss to a determined Bath Rugby outfit in the Champions Cup on Sunday, with the home side coming back from 22-8 down to win 29-25 at the Rec.
The rapid outside back was "pretty gutted" post match but took the time to have a candid chat with The Big Jim Show's Jim Hamilton and Francois Louw, opening up on why he chose to stay in Paris and effectively close the door on England selection.
"I very much want to play for England. It's just, unfortunately, the rules don't allow it.
"For me right now I think the best things for me and my rugby is development, not necessarily playing for England all the time. Because while it's fantastic and I love it, is it the best thing for my development at the moment?
"I'm still very young. I need to learn the nuances of the game. The coach that I have [Stuart Lancaster], and the assistant coaches, Joe Rokocoko and Fred Michalak, they're guys that have been there, done that as players."
He also touched on the influence of double world cup winning Springbok captain, Siya Kolisi.
"There's more to rugby than just the skill, learning off Siya outside of rugby, even leadership stuff. Whilst I'm young, I want to be able to lead eventually at some point when I'm in a team and have influence on a culture.
"For me it's very much a development focus and in three years I'll 100% be back to England to play and put myself forward for the 2027 World Cup."
The 21-year-old offered his thoughts on why the RFU and England have the policies that they do.
"I one hundred percent understand why they do it. It makes complete sense. You've got to look after your domestic league and you want the best players playing in the domestic league.
"My experience now playing in the Top 14, every club we go to, all the fan bases, as soon as they see Gael Fickou and Cameron Woki, it's massive. It's paparazzi, it's everything. They love it. Fans want to talk to all of them. And that should be the same here. England internationals should be the biggest faces in this league and I understand why they do it.
"Obviously now, I'm going to say I'd love it if they open it up... but I understand why they do it."
He added that when having a private conversation, it was clear that England head coach Steve Borthwick wants him in the white jersey.
"He fully wants me to play for England and I've got so much respect for him. We had a very good conversation and I told him this is purely development and this three-year contract is not for me to just enjoy playing in France and eat croissants every day. It's to get better for England, when I come back, I'm a better player for England. When I was playing for England I wasn't the best player I could be and even now I'm still learning a lot.
"Playing in the big games, playing in the Top 14 each week where every game is massive and you have to win, that's where you learn. You learn to fail and you learn to get better and maybe avoid that English media side of things - that can sometimes have a big influence on young players.
"So I'll be there for three years, three-year contract and come back and hopefully be the best version possible to be picked for England and offer the best for England."
Watch the full post match chat with Arundell at RugbyPass.TV
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Latest Comments
Well lets hope so. England have developed a very strong kicking game and I'm all for them going to it on a regular basis to get into the right areas of the field but they need to find the right balance. They've been far too predictable and far too low risk. Tindall recently summed up my thoughts on this... “rugby is a pressure game, it's about building phases”. Against Scotland they almost never went over 2 phases, it was super weird. None of the top 4 sides are playing in this manner, I don't see where the precedent is for this staccato style of play. We've got an exceptional group of loose forwards developing, let's make use of that quick ball! Hopefully the Welsh game is a turning point and the coaches will trust the players to take a few more risks. It's not that I have anything against kicking in test matches, it's absolutely essential that we kick well but we do that already, it's the rest of the attack which has been missing. This relentless kicking isn't the way the best sides win test matches these days. Kick well, kick lots but we need to be setup to take advantage of quick ball and defensive misalignments around the halfway line and we need to build pressure by going multiphase in the 22 instead of grubber kicking it or crossfielding with such high regularity.
Go to commentsAgreed, seen far too many false dawns as an England fan and here are still far too many question marks over Borthwick and his coaching team. The Scotland and Ireland performances were still poor, even if we managed to stay on the right side of the scoreboard on one of them. France game we were fortunate but we at least played well
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