'Kelly and Steward are a funny duo, a Del Boy, Rodney type vibe'
Seasoned back-rower Sam Underhill has outlined his enthusiasm in being surrounding by so many new faces in the current England camp, Eddie Jones giving Test debuts last Sunday to a dozen players as he looked to refresh the mood surrounding the 2019 World Cup finalists following their 2021 fifth-place Guinness Six Nations finish.
“Dan Kelly and Freddie Steward are a very funny duo, a Del Boy, Rodney type vibe – you can guess which one is which. They're good," thrilled Underwood ahead of Thursday's announcement of the XV that will play Canada in the series-ending match this Saturday at Twickenham. "Dan is a pretty impressive communicator on the pitch.
"There are loads of young lads here, lads who haven’t necessarily been around camp a lot and what is nice is everybody is just being themselves, there is not an expectation to conform to a certain way of being. Lads are just bringing their own personalities, their own styles. Bevan Rodd is a bit of a joker and so is Chunya (Munga). It's quite a good group to be around, it is quite fun. People are allowed to be themselves which is nice."
Underhill was the third most capped player in last weekend's matchday 23 but he felt that there hasn't been a noticeable difference between the players who know the ropes and those new to the scene. "There is no 'I'm a senior player, you're new'. It's all very egalitarian.
"Everyone's throwing their weight in, everyone's training as well as they can, everyone's leading standards off the pitch, everyone's hanging out with each other, there is no otherness which is cool. It's really impressive, the communication skills on the pitch have been really impressive. There isn't anyone here that is not pulling their weight."
It was four years ago when Underhill, who turns 25 in a few weeks, earned his first cap while England were on tour in Argentina. The memories made at that time on his impressionable mind haven't been forgotten judging by how he vividly recalled how established players left their mark on him. "The lads that have successful careers and had been around England for a long time, how hard they worked. It was my first involvement with internationals, guys I'd seen on TV, seeing how diligent they were at training.
"Chris Robshaw was always top on GPS and work rate in training, guys like Dylan (Hartley) were always doing extras. You would come down in the morning and he would be doing some wrestling or fitness on the mats. Just seeing how much work they put in behind the scenes was a big lesson for me as a young guy."
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What’s new its a common occurrence, just the journos out there expecting a negative spin. The outcome will be beneficial to jordie and Leinster. The home grown lads hav got some experience to step up to and be more competitive, that or spend the 6 months keeping the bench warm.
Go to commentsI’m all for speeding up the game. But can we be certain that the slowness of the game contributed to fans walking out? I’m not so sure. Super rugby largely suffered from most fans only being able to, really, follow the games played in their own time zone. So at least a third of the fan base wasn’t engaged at any point in time. As a Saffer following SA teams in the URC - I now watch virtually every European game played on the weekend. In SR, I wouldn’t be bothered to follow the games being played on the other side of the world, at weird hours, if my team wasn’t playing. I now follow the whole tournament and not just the games in my time zone. Second, with New Zealand teams always winning. It’s like formula one. When one team dominates, people lose interest. After COVID, with SA leaving and Australia dipping in form, SR became an even greater one horse race. Thats why I think Japan’s league needs to get in the mix. The international flavor of those teams could make for a great spectacle. But surely if we believe that shaving seconds off lost time events in rugby is going to draw fans back, we should be shown some figures that supports this idea before we draw any major conclusions. Where are the stats that shows these changes have made that sort of impact? We’ve measured down to the average no. Of seconds per game. Where the measurement of the impact on the fanbase? Does a rugby “fan” who lost interest because of ball in play time suddenly have a revived interest because we’ve saved or brought back into play a matter of seconds or a few minutes each game? I doubt it. I don’t thinks it’s even a noticeable difference to be impactful. The 20 min red card idea. Agreed. Let’s give it a go. But I think it’s fairer that the player sent off is substituted and plays no further part in the game as a consequence.
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