1
Mark Mapletoft: Why England U20s invited RugbyPass to film Embedded
By Liam Heagney
England U20s coach Mark Mapletoft has explained why he has permitted RugbyPass to film Embedded 2024, the behind-the-scenes documentary series on the exploits of his Six Nations title-winning squad at the World Rugby U20 Championship.
The English open their Pool C campaign this Saturday with a heavyweight clash versus Argentina in Athlone and the first episode of the new docu series was released on Wednesday, quickly garnering the seal of approval from Mapletoft and his players who watched in the team room at their hotel in Cape Town.
It’s the second foray by RugbyPass into filming a team at the U20 Championship in South Africa as a series was also produced on Italy last year. The footage that Mapletoft saw from that production convinced him that it would be worthwhile for England to similarly lift the veil on their age-grade squad.
Asked ahead of their opener versus the Argentines why England have thrown open their doors for public consumption, Mapletoft explained: “There is a number of reasons. It’s something players are exposed to at the top level so if we are using this as a development opportunity for our future best players or future internationals then they get accustomed to it.
“It’s part and parcel of everyday life, particularly when you are on tour. Coming away for long periods of time is challenging and you have to be able to adapt to the surroundings. I think as well coming off the back of covid, although it seems a long time ago now, there was a lot of I wouldn’t say negativity around the pathway but there was a degree of negativity I felt in ours.
“We have worked incredibly hard as a whole collective to try and improve that and of course promoting it from within and externally is a huge part of that, making people aware of what we are doing, who the players are. That’s how society engages in life, isn’t it, through social media and things just take off in a instance.
“When we were approached to do it by RugbyPass, I know they did it last year – they showed us the example of what Italy had done. I personally didn’t have any problem with that. It’s the world we live in. We have got to embrace it and use it to be best of our advantage as long as it is not too intrusive and getting in players’ way of preparation.
“All the staff we have had on board with this so far have been brilliant and I have watched the first episode with the players last night for the first time and all the feedback from family and friends has been, ‘We really enjoyed it’.
“It’s how we see life these days, short, sharp little snippets of information and yeah, we’re a long way from home, there probably won’t be many people here so to give them a taste of what we are doing win, lose or draw certainly is a brilliant idea.”
- Click here to sign up to RugbyPass TV for free live World Rugby U20s Championship matches from Saturday, June 29
Trending on RugbyPass
2
Rassie Erasmus explains so-called Willie Le Roux selection snub
3
Mitchell hints England's much-maligned habit is a thing of the past
4
Gregor Townsend breaks silence on his Scotland future
5
Latest Comments
That’s not the only way to look at it. Every year there are players with breakout seasons in the feeder comp. Those players are fairly limited in what options they have because the Super sides operate as ‘clubs’ where they have people contracted for multiple years and no space available unlike contracting setups in the NFL. Going to four would force an improvement in player retention imo.
As per above I think there is a lot of intelligence in doing that. I reckon I could come up with a dead wood list of 30 names for you. But yes, it certainly means they would need to factor in a better way of making sure the right players are retained. I like small squads myself, but every year teams are needing to go well beyond their numbers and pick from those that remained in NZ after missing out on Super contracts, so just compensating by having fewer teams but larger squads would certainly be viable, especially the way they are injurying their players currently.
Why not just give them Moana figuretively speaking to have as their fourth side (so they need to drop a side so it can be 5 teams on each side of the ditch, with Drua having Fiji games as well)? That’s the point of my reply, that the Aussies should have actually consolidated to 3 teams years ago, not four, pertinent because the 11 teams currently is not ‘it’. Hey, if they can get a Jaguares, or (South) American team in with even half of Argentina’s test stars and most of all the others, as a 12th team willing to play within 10 hours flight, then great, that’s obviously the way to go. But weve heard nothing. I can’t see a 6th NZ team as they’ve refused profusely and it would take too much of a restructural step for them to accept imo.
Yep, that’s right, the 12 number is also not ‘it’. 10 rather than 12 gives them more flexibility imo. It could all change depending on what this new test window global season bs is going to be.
Go to commentsHire Expert Certified Intelligence Cyber Wizard Assets Recovery Company for any job?
I was persuaded to buy cryptocurrency by someone I met online. They have access to a group of analysts who provide reliable predictions for the rise and fall of BTC. I initially attempted with a modest amount just to be sure, and I was successful in withdrawing money twice. This demonstrated a growth in the signals I was receiving. I decided to include corporate funds as well. When I tried to contact the individual at that point, he had banned all of his connections, which is when everything started to go wrong. I tried everything until a friend of mine introduced me to a hacker INTELLIGENCE CYBER WIZARD, a company that helps individuals and businesses recover their stolen BTC assets. They truly helped me to recover everything at an affordable fee and I was exultantly proud and joyful; in high spirits. If you are in the same mess, To learn more about them kindly reach out to them with the details below:
E-mail: intelligencecyberwizard@gmail.com
Mail: intelligencecyberwizard@ma
il.com
Go to comments