Jamie George calls out play that was 'not the England standard'
Jamie George believes a confrontation with South Africa offers the perfect opportunity for the England pack to rediscover their edge after being bullied by New Zealand. George has revealed that the red rose are hurting after being outmuscled in a 25-25 draw, particularly during a passive first half that laid the platform for the All Blacks to establish a 19-point lead by the 71st minute.
South Africa complete the Autumn Nations Series at Twickenham on Saturday and George views the clash with the world champions as the ideal stage for the England forwards who looking to snarl once again.
“That has been the talk all week,” George said. “It’s the perfect test for us as a front five off the back of a poor performance against New Zealand. The way we scrummaged and mauled is not the England standard and we are fully aware of that.
"Players have been really accountable for that and what better than testing yourself against one of the best packs in the world? We have got a lot of respect for them but we are hurting from our performance at the weekend and we want to make sure we get things right.”
England started the week with a period of soul-searching as they sought an explanation for the dismal first half that was followed by stunning fightback, sparing head coach Eddie Jones a more vigorous inquest into what went wrong. Rather than Jones or his coaching lieutenants orchestrating the response against South Africa, George revealed the players have taken control of a squad that was reduced from 36 to 26 on Tuesday evening.
“A lot of things this week have been more player-led,” the Saracens and Lions hooker said. “Kyle Sinckler said he wants to do more scrum set-ups and when you hear your tighthead talking about that, that gives you a huge amount of confidence. It’s little things like that. Also, the way Maro Itoje has taken on the lineout and the maul is impressive.
“It’s impressive of the coaches to allow them to grow into those roles as well because, off the back of a pretty mediocre performance, coaches sometimes try and take over and put all their input on it. But they have given the players confidence and said, ‘Go and fix the problem’ and they have fed in as and when needed.”
George insists England remain comfortable with their decision to kick the ball dead in overtime rather than launch one last do-or-die assault in search of an improbable win against the All Blacks. They have been criticised for showing a lack of ambition, but George said: “I was probably more, ‘Kick it out’.
“I know there is a lot of criticism around it and I can understand that. On the field at the time, where we had come back from was incredible. We did have a length-of-the-field try at one stage but that doesn’t happen that often against the All Blacks. When you do it once, they smarten up.
“It’s always dangerous to play in your own half. We would have been confident we could break them down but the risk was probably too high at that point so it was the right call.”
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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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