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The Irish verdict on rookie Pearson's latest England involvement

(Photo by Alex Davidson/The RFU Collection via Getty Images)

London Irish are hopeful that Tom Pearson has returned from Jersey another step closer to making his England Test debut. The back-rower, who only made his Gallagher Premiership debut in October 2021, was called into Eddie Jones’ squad after it was decided to allow Courtney Lawes to continue his recovery from a concussion at home on Northampton.

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Having since seen the youngster celebrate his 23rd birthday in midweek on the Channel Island, Exiles boss Declan Kidney has expressed optimism that the presence of Pearson at the five-day preparation camp can result in a first match day involvement over the course of the upcoming four-game series that begins against Argentina on November 6.

Asked for a character reference on Pearson, the England newcomer who negotiated the BUCS pathway via Cardiff Metropolitan University into professional rugby where he has now played 24 times for London Irish, Kidney said: “Tom has a good skillset. He is still a very young man. He has a good skillset bit in defence and attack, he knows the areas of his game that he needs to work on.

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“I don’t know, I have started shying away from saying players at that level bring a level of physicality to it because they all do that but he is well able to hold his own in those stakes.”

Given this past week wasn’t the first time Pearson was called into an England training squad in 2022, how close does Kidney reckon he might be to joining Henry Arundell and Will Joseph as London Irish players capped by Jones?

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“At international level back rows are always close (to getting picked) because the attrition rate is so high that you never know when it would come his way. You are always wanting a person to get his cap on total merit where everyone is fit, but the more experience our lads get inside England camp the more they know what it is about and when they go in second and third time around, it is not all new to them and they can settle into it a bit more.

“That is the disadvantage of the younger guys going into camp because it always takes them a while to settle in and to come through, but hopefully he will pick up something which will be a just reward for his work – but it [his call-up] also goes with the attrition rate from last weekend.

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“I saw some headline somewhere that there were a number of fellas not able to train this week which is not unusual for an international camp week. I have experience with that myself (in Ireland), but there were a good few knocks last weekend so I’m sure Eddie had to work his way around that and get on with preparation.

“There were probably more than the 36 players over in Jersey and by going to the meetings and seeing the walk-throughs… what is training? Training encompasses everything, meetings, walkthroughs, micro meetings, individual meetings, and then the team ones as well as intense training.”

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Comments on RugbyPass

J
JW 58 minutes ago
Andy Goode: Aussie comments didn't cover them in glory

Yes I was happy with the refs ruling of arrival (and that the tackled player wasn’t obligated to release the ball immediately) but if you see the wide angle you can note how Morgan dives to get there in time.


I don’t mind your (or the refs) view, but what Morgan said is accurate. Both Mils and Beaver agreed on the breakdown, and you will also get the same view from Aotearoa Rugby Pod guys for a pretty unanimous NZ view.

Sometimes when both players are low its a rugby collision and this is one of those times.

Not recently. In the SR finals and AB v Arg series weve seen players clearly bent 90 at the waist still be penalised, only when the attacker does something the ref sees immediate mitigation and rules a rugby incident. Tizzano didn’t offer that he was always in the position Morgan aimed to collect him in.


Happy to not throw the rule book at these situations but the precent is that they are in these situations.

many tries out wide the player is allowed to be tackled while diving

They are diving for the line, not to avoid being tackled.

“In principle, in a try scoring situation, if the action is deemed to be a dive forward for a try, then it should be permitted. If a player is deemed to have left the ground to avoid a tackle; or to jump, or hurdle a potential tackler, then this is dangerous play and should be sanctioned accordingly.”

You can read Nicks article for an updated discourse on this though.

30 Go to comments
J
JW 1 hour ago
New Zealanders may not understand, but in France Test rugby is the 'B movie'

But he was wrong, he had to take back what he said. But maybe this only happened because he came out and was honest with his initial plans?


He’s simply in a position where he should be far more professional.


I don’t really follow much media, especially SM, but again, I’ve not seen anyone complaining. Plenty of ridicule and pointing out things like it being disrespectful to the game, but as far as the English language goes, that’s not complaining. Nick Bishop for instance hasn’t been complaining, he’s simply saying Galthie made a bad decision for France’s prospects (which when the common reply is ‘thats how it is’).


Complaining would be views expressing that the FFR should have put the tour back a week so that all T14 finalists could attend. Complaining would be saying they’ve been robbed of seeing the worlds best stars. Complaining would be saying players can simply take extra weeks off from T14. I’ve only seen advice and suggestions that these are things France need to look-at-for-the-future.


Basically I tried to communicate with French fans because they don’t understand what’s being communicated. ALL reactions I have seen shared here by French supports have all seemed way over the top compared what I’ve seen expressed about this tour.

the players are expected to play in too many matches, for too many minutes, and need more rest and recovery time.

This is the message I have been sharing. So something needs to happen, whether thats France pull out of more Internationals or rest players from more domestic games, who knows, but I also don’t think what they have now is working. It’s obviously much better than 3-4 years ago, but they appear to want to work even harder at it like you say. Personally I’ve only seen LNR be reasonable, I hear much less of their other internationals being denied/influenced not to play, so I imagine that they will give even further (as I can’t really see France pulling out the other international windows as well).

147 Go to comments
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