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'He's like a nice Pinotage, he has matured well': The making of 50-cap Anthony Watson
By Liam Heagney
Anthony Watson has been hailed for his dedication to become a better player for England ahead of his 50th appearance for his country this Saturday. The 27-year-old has been selected on the right wing for the keenly anticipated Guinness Six Nations round four game at home to France.
First capped in 2014 by Stuart Lancaster, Watson has been a regular pick for Eddie Jones but that maturation hasn't been easy given how frequently injury he has been. Even after starring for the 2017 Lions, starting in all three Test games versus New Zealand, there were further setbacks to negotiate.
However, Jones now feels that Watson has come of age and is revelling in being in the prime of his career with England. "I have never seen a player work so hard," enthused Jones ahead of Saturday's Twickenham showdown with the French.
"He had a difficult injury period, went to the World Cup, did exceedingly well for us at the World Cup and then went through another injury period, has come back and is close to his best. His 50th game will be his best game.
"He has matured very nicely. He's like a nice Pinotage, he has matured well. Probably in the early stage of his career, he didn't maximise his potential and now he is really working hard to be the best player he can be.
"That is coming out in the way that he is presenting himself as a player because he has got the confidence that he knows he is well prepared that may be early in his career came a little too easy for him and he took things for granted. Now he is 100 per cent committed to being the best player he can be.
Asked to further elaborate on Watson's maturity, Jones added: "He was driving a Daihatsu for a while and now he is back in the Maserati, so that makes a bit of a difference. He goes a bit faster... and I think having a child has helped him again, having a number of serious injuries have helped him focus on his career and what is important to him, so there have been a number of factors involved."
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Stephen Larkham, Mick Byrne, Scott Wisental, Ben Mowen, Les Kiss, Jim McKay, Rod Kafer.
There are plenty of great Australian coaches who could do a better job than Schmidt.
Go to commentsThis piece is nothing more than the result of revisionist fancy of Northern Hemisphere rugby fans. Seeing what they want to see, helped but some surprisingly good results and a desire to get excited about doing something well.
I went back through the 6N highlights and sure enough in every English win I remembered seeing these exact holes on the inside, that are supposedly the fallout out of a Felix Jones system breaking down in the hands of some replacement. Every time the commentators mentioned England being targeted up the seam/around the ruck or whatever. Each game had a try scored on the inside of the blitz, no doubt it was a theme throughout all of their games. Will Jordan specifically says that Holland had design that move to target space he saw during their home series win.
Well I'm here to tell you they were the same holes in a Felix Jones system being built as well. This woe is now sentiment has got to stop. The game is on a high, these games have been fantastic! It is Englands attack that has seen their stocks increase this year, and no doubt that is what SB told him was the teams priority. Or it's simply science, with Englands elite players having worked towards a new player welfare and management system, as part of new partnership with the ERU, that's dictating what the players can and can't put their bodies through.
The only bit of truth in this article is that Felix is not there to work on fixing his defence. England threw away another good chance of winning in the weekend when they froze all enterprise under pressure when no longer playing attacking footy for the second half. That mindset helped (or not helped if you like) of course by all this knee jerk, red brained criticism.
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