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'I have no doubt there is going to be some altercations'
By Liam Heagney
Wales assistant Neik Jenkins has bitten back following England accusations that veteran skipper Alun Wyn Jones has in the past targeted their players and would need to be dealt with when the teams meet on Saturday in the third round of the Guinness Six Nations.
Jones is set to play against England for the 23rd occasion in his long career and he has been singled out by Eddie Jones as someone whose wind-up tactics must be curtailed at the Principality Stadium.
“He has at times targeted various players in our team," claimed England boss Jones. "We have spoken about him, we understand what he will be trying to do and it’s just making sure we maintain our composure and our control.”
Wales have now exercised their right of reply, assistant coach Jenkins answering back at the criticism of his team's captain. "Look, the game is the game and things are going to happen, people will get on edge," he said.
"There is going to be confrontations, there is going to be a little bit off the ball stuff. That is the reality but you can't do anything nowadays, there are so many cameras and you have got so many people looking at you, you have just got to be as disciplined as you can possibly be.
"You don't want to give teams easy ins and certainly we don't want to give England easy ins. They have got big ball carriers, people who can make dents in your defensive line and we want to minimise that as best as we can. But as for the edge and as for the occasion, you have to play it by ear and see how it goes. I have no doubt there is going to be some altercations but let's hope it's disciplined ones."
There is an appetite among rugby fans for a rousingly entertaining spectacle to unfold in Cardiff as Wales seek to take the third step towards a possible Grand Slam and England look to rectify the damage to the title retention bid caused by their defeat to Scotland.
However, Jenkins is predicting a low frills, kick dominated affair along the lines of what unfolded when England last visited Wales in November for a 24-13 Autumn Nations Cup win at Llanelli. "I don't see it being too dissimilar if I'm brutally honest," he said. "There is not an awful lot of space out there.
"England will graft at the scrum and lineout as they normally do, it will be very tough and heavily contested but there is not an awful lot of space and you have got to earn that and try and earn that right to play by using the kicking game. England do it very effectively. They kick an awful lot of ball in your half... kicking is going to be a big facet in the game.
"You have got be disciplined, you have got to be smart, you have got to be willing to get in the arm wrestle, you have got to be willing to play in the right areas. All this stuff comes to the fore. You can't afford to be making silly decisions and they get an easy in.
"It's quite tough to stop a team like England when they get close to your try line. They have big ball carriers and they will come pretty direct and it's not easy to do, so minimising their chances in our half is what we are going to do and they are probably going to try and do the same to us."
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Latest Comments
Well that sux.
Go to commentsLike I've said before about your idea (actually it might have been something to do with mine, I can't remember), I like that teams will a small sustainable league focus can gain the reward of more consistent CC involvement. I'd really like the most consistent option available.
Thing is, I think rugby can do better than footballs version. I think for instance I wanted everyone in it to think they can win it, where you're talking about the worst teams not giving up because they are so far off the pace we get really bad scoreline when that and giving up to concentrate on the league is happening together.
So I really like that you could have a way to remedy that, but personally I would want my model to not need that crutch. Some of this is the same problem that football has. I really like the landscape in both the URC and Prem, but Ireland with Leinster specifically, and France, are a problem IMO. In football this has turned CL pool stages in to simply cash cow fixtures for the also ran countries teams who just want to have a Real Madrid or ManC to lose to in their pool for that bumper revenue hit. It's always been a comp that had suffered for real interest until the knockouts as well (they might have changed it in recent years?).
You've got some great principles but I'm not sure it's going to deliver on that hard hitting impact right from the start without the best teams playing in it. I think you might need to think about the most minimal requirement/way/performance, a team needs to execute to stay in the Champions Cup as I was having some thougt about that earlier and had some theory I can't remember. First they could get entry by being a losing quarter finalist in the challenge, then putting all their eggs in the Champions pool play bucket in order to never finish last in their pool, all the while showing the same indifference to their league some show to EPCR rugby now, just to remain in champions. You extrapolate that out and is there ever likely to be more change to the champions cup that the bottom four sides rotate out each year for the 4 challenge teams? Are the leagues ever likely to have the sort of 'flux' required to see some variation? Even a good one like Englands.
I'd love to have a table at hand were you can see all the outcomes, and know how likely any of your top 12 teams are going break into Champions rubyg on th back it it are?
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