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Late Tackle: Grooming around with a Lion
By RugbyPass
Nic Groom returned to South Africa from the Northampton Saints and shares his views on the Springboks, England and playing alongside one of the "bad boys" of the game.
Never miss an episode of Late Tackle - the talk show with a difference, which brings in various personalities from all over the rugby world each week to dissect hot topics and provide unique insight into the professional game - subscribe here on iTunes.
Howie Kahn, Anton 'Worms' van Zyl and Morgan Newman dives straight into Rassie Erasmus' Springbok squad selection before looking back on a Super Rugby weekend that once again brought out some inconsistent sanctions.
Groom, who made 57 appearances for the Stormers, returned to Newlands during Round 15 after leaving the franchise at the end of the 2016 Super Rugby season where he dotted down for the Johannesburg-based franchise to edge the Cape Town-based side.
He opens up about that match at 17:23 before opening up about his time at Saints and the differences between England and South Africa regarding the nurturing of young talent at 19:35.
Groom lifted the lid on the type of person Dylan Hartley is at 24:47 before an interesting discussion emerges about the intricacies around substitutions, especially that of a team's captain.
At 31:19, the team speaks about newly confirmed Springbok captain Siya Kolisi.
The show rolls towards a conclusion around 35:38 with Groom sharing his thoughts on the upcoming Test series against England before he shares some funny moments about who his worst roommate was while on tour.
*Late Tackle promotes responsible drinking. Alcohol is not for sale to anyone under the age of 18.
*Late Tackle is driven home safely by 1 For the Road
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Latest Comments
i think Argentina v France could be a good game too, depending on which Argentina turns up. The most difficult to call is Scotland Australia.
Go to commentsSmith is playing a different game with the rest of the backs struggling to understand. That's the problem with so called playmakers, if nobody gets what they're doing then it often just leads to a turnover. It gets worse when Borthwick changes one of them, which is why they don't score points at the end. Sometimes having a brilliant playmaker can be problematic if a team cannot be built around them. Once again Borthwick seems lacking in either coaching or selection. I can't help but think it's the latter coupled with pressure to select the big name players.
Lastly, his forward replacements are poor and exposed either lack of depth or selection pressure. Cole hemorrhages scrum penalties whenever he comes on, opponents take advantage of the England scrum and close out the game. Is that the best England can offer?
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