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Richard Cockerill 'will speak his mind' to Eddie Jones
By PA
Richard Cockerill is happy to take orders from Eddie Jones but will continue to speak his mind as he looks to stamp his combative personality on to England’s pack.
Cockerill was appointed forwards coach three weeks ago and having already visited several Premiership clubs, he will work with Jones’ 45-man training squad for the first time as they gather at The Lensbury for a three-day camp on Sunday.
The former Leicester hooker was a belligerent force for England throughout the 27 caps he won between 1997 and 1999 and he famously stared down New Zealand’s Norm Hewitt as the Haka was being performed.
As a coach at Tigers and Edinburgh the 50-year-old fielded well-drilled and rugged forward packs forged in his own image, and an intriguing dynamic of the next two years leading into France 2023 will be his relationship with Jones.
Both are combustible and hard-nosed, forthright and used to being in charge, but when asked how comfortable he is at taking orders, Cockerill replied: “I’m very good. I spend a lot of time at home so I get lots of orders there from my wife!
“When I spoke to Eddie about what the role was and what part there was for me, I accepted where I would sit in the hierarchy.
“I’ve got no problem with it – Eddie is a very experienced coach who knows his own mind, and my job is to make sure that my parts of the game work well and we collaborate so that it all plugs in well together and we have a cohesive team.
“Eddie knows me well enough and knows the personality that I am. That’s what he wants – he wants opinion and he wants different views. But ultimately he’s the boss and he will make decisions and have the final say.
“I’m happy to share my views because that’s part of being here. What’s the point of having the experience I’ve got and not using that?
“But Eddie is the boss – everyone knows that and I know that. Ultimately, it’s his team and he’ll decide who plays and how it’s run.”
Cockerill will oversee the line-out while Matt Proudfoot, who also holds the title of forwards coach, takes charge of the scrum, with the pair sharing other duties such as the breakdown and contact area.
While being presented by England as equals, Cockerill is expected to take the senior role and it is clear his identity will be the most influential in shaping the pack over the next two years.
Cockerill said: “Eddie wants a fresh pair of eyes, different eyes. He wants me to bring my personality and my drive.
“I’ve always been able to get combative forward packs and drive mentality and I think that’s probably appealed to him.
“You’d like the forwards to be very difficult to play against. You’d like them to deliver a physical performance every time they get on the field.
“The level of our performance can be world class. Part of that is for me to drive those standards and keep the guys honest and on task.”
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The boy needs to bulk up if wants to play 10 or 11 to handle those hits, otherwise he could always make a brilliant reserve for the wings if he stays away from the stretcher.
Go to commentsIn another recent article I tried to argue for a few key concept changes for EPCR which I think could light the game up in the North.
First, I can't remember who pointed out the obvious elephant in the room (a SA'n poster?), it's a terrible time to play rugby in the NH, and especially your pinnacle tournament. It's been terrible watching with seemingly all the games I wanted to watch being in the dark, hardly able to see what was going on. The Aviva was the only stadium I saw that had lights that could handle the miserable rain. If the global appeal is there, they could do a lot better having day games.
They other primary idea I thuoght would benefit EPCR most, was more content. The Prem could do with it and the Top14 could do with something more important than their own league, so they aren't under so much pressure to sell games. The quality over quantity approach.
Trim it down to two 16 team EPCR competitions, and introduce a third for playing amongst the T2 sides, or the bottom clubs in each league should simply be working on being better during the EPCR.
Champions Cup is made up of league best 15 teams, + 1, the Challenge Cup winner. Without a reason not to, I'd distribute it evenly based on each leauge, dividing into thirds and rounded up, 6 URC 5 Top14 4 English. Each winner (all four) is #1 rank and I'd have a seeding round or two for the other 12 to determine their own brackets for 2nd, 3rd, and 4th. I'd then hold a 6 game pool, home and away, with consecutive of each for those games that involve SA'n teams. Preferrably I'd have a regional thing were all SA'n teams were in the same pool but that's a bit complex for this simple idea.
That pool round further finalises the seeding for knockout round of 16. So #1 pool has essentially duked it out for finals seeding already (better venue planning), and to see who they go up against 16, 15,etc etc. Actually I think I might prefer a single pool round for seeding, and introduce the home and away for Ro16, quarters, and semis (stuffs up venue hire). General idea to produce the most competitive matches possible until the random knockout phase, and fix the random lottery of which two teams get ranked higher after pool play, and also keep the system identical for the Challenge Cup so everthing is succinct. Top T2 side promoted from last year to make 16 in Challenge Cup
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