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The Ardie Savea comparison that has Tom Curry at No8 for England
By Liam Heagney
Eddie Jones has explained the logic behind picking regular England flanker Tom Curry as the starting No8 for this Saturday's Autumn Nations Series opener versus Tonga at Twickenham. The 23-year-old has only occupied the No8 shirt in four of his previous 32 England starts and he was last selected in that role for the March 2020 Guinness Six Nations game versus Wales.
Curry since went on to become the first-choice Lions openside for their 2021 three-Test tour in South Africa and the expectation with Billy Vunipola excluded from the current England squad was that Alex Dombrandt, the title-winning No8 from Harlequins, would be chosen to fill that role at the back of the scrum against the Tongans.
However, Jones has decided differently, confining Dombrandt to the Twickenham bench and starting Curry at No8 in a back row where he will be flanked by Courtney Lawes and Sam Underhill.
Asked why he had opted to select in this way, England boss Jones highlighted the various skills of Curry and compared his ability to All Blacks star Ardie Savea, another flanker who in recent times has switched into the No8 jersey at Test level.
"A lot of things," said Jones on being quizzed why Curry has the ability to play No8 rather than start in his more familiar role at flanker. "Firstly, defensively he is probably one of the best defensive back-rowers in the world.
"His one-on-one tackling, his ability to get his head over the ball and then since he first came into the squad in 2017 where he came in mainly as a defensive player, he has evolved his game to include some running skills, some passing skills and some linkage skills more importantly.
"So with the back row we have got initially with Courtney, a pretty strong ball runner, and Underhill, strong over the ball, it will give a chance to mix his game between running and linking and his defensive work and he has got the ability to do that.
"You know, there are two players in the world that are similar at the moment in that aspect and it is him and Ardie Savea. They are both natural sevens but have got the capacity to be outstanding eights because they have the ability to carry the ball, to link and still do the defensive work.
"So we are very excited about seeing Tom play at 8. He played there before and this will be another opportunity for him to take another step forward."
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Latest Comments
Nah, that just needs some more variation. Chip kicks, grubber stabs, all those. Will Jordan showed a pretty good reason why the rush was bad for his link up with BB.
If you have an overlap on a rush defense, they naturally cover out and out and leave a huge gap near the ruck.
It also helps if both teams play the same rules. ARs set the offside line 1m past where the last mans feet were😅
Go to commentsYeah nar, should work for sure. I was just asking why would you do it that way?
It could be achieved by outsourcing all your IP and players to New Zealand, Japan, and America, with a big Super competition between those countries raking it in with all of Australia's best talent to help them at a club level. When there is enough of a following and players coming through internally, and from other international countries (starting out like Australia/without a pro scene), for these high profile clubs to compete without a heavy australian base, then RA could use all the money they'd saved over the decades to turn things around at home and fund 4 super sides of their own that would be good enough to compete.
That sounds like a great model to reset the game in Aus. Take a couple of decades to invest in youth and community networks before trying to become professional again. I just suggest most aussies would be a bit more optimistic they can make it work without the two decades without any pro club rugby bit.
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