Sam Simmonds on England camp life under Borthwick and Sinfield
Sam Simmonds says there is already a “buzz” around England under new head coach Steve Borthwick.
Borthwick’s first squad have gathered at their Surrey training base preparing for the Guinness Six Nations opener against Scotland at Twickenham next Saturday.
Exeter back-rower Simmonds believes the squad, which toiled badly towards the end of Eddie Jones’ reign last autumn, are buying into the new regime quickly.
“Steve and the rest of the coaches expect a lot from us, as they should,” said Simmonds.
“We haven’t played a game yet but, within the few training sessions that we’ve had, it feels like we’re going in the right direction. There’s a buzz around the squad of excitement and enjoyment.
“The first game against Scotland is huge but from what I’ve seen and been a bit of so far, we’re building quite nicely.”
Rugby league great Kevin Sinfield is also making his mark as England’s new defence coach.
“We have only been in camp for the last two or three days, but you can see what it means to him to be here and it’s filtering down throughout the squad,” added Simmonds.
“He is a person who will lead the squad and you want to follow him into battle, I guess. He is having a good impact on the squad. I think he is going to do good things for our defence.
“He is someone that is very easy to respect, not just for what he has done in rugby league but his things off the pitch, and what he did for Leicester to get them to a winning team in the Premiership when he had only been there a year and a half and their defence was unbelievable.
“That trust in him that he has done it at the top level, and him coming in although he has not had international experience before – he is someone you respect and almost idolise straight away.”
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Barnes is on the board of the RFU as referee representative. The Referees Union who wrote the letter calling for a Special General Meeting over the pay of execs/losses and more made mistakes. A symtom of a good letter is that you can stand behind every line in it as factual. While there are several good points in their letter they allowed a few ill thought out rants. This meant that the Board via Wayne Barnes can undermine the letter by focusing on the inaccuracies which weakens the real points. I'm not saying Barnes is acting untoward, he's not, he is concerned about refs showing hypocricy and he is also defending the RFU.
The Referees position is weakened simply by not being able to write a proper letter.
This is not untypical of sporting organisations and representatives at all levels.
Go to commentsYes, it will become much harder to target an opposing scrum now, which is why I think having a solid rather than dominant scrum will be enough for teams in the future. While the impact of the 30 second law is still to be fully felt, the free kick law has already had an impact. I can't imagine the Boks taking many quick taps from free kicks in the past. They would have taken a scrum to work a penalty or continue their 'slow poison' on the legs of the opposition. With that option off the table the scrum has already become less important as a weapon.
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