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Tindall urges England to 'hunt' vulnerable Scotland
By Peter Thompson
Mike Tindall wants to see England go "hunting" and take advantage of Scotland's vulnerable defence in the Six Nations clash at Murrayfield on Saturday.
Scotland were hammered 34-7 by Wales in the first game of the tournament and shipped 26 points in a victory over France last time out.
England were effective rather than entertaining in a tense win over Wales after seeing off Italy as they aim to become the first side to win the competition outright three years in a row.
Tindall thinks Scotland's expansive style could give the holders a chance to show what they are capable of with ball in hand after thrashing their rivals from north of the border 61-21 in the Calcutta Cup showdown last year.
Speaking at the Tournoi des 6 Stations Orangina, the former England centre told Omnisport: "Scotland haven't had much of a defence for this Six Nations, so they are going to have to work on that.
"It gives England a lot of chances to go out there and try and break them down. They put a lot of points on them last year, but this has been talked of as a potential banana skin for a long time.
"If Scotland can shore up their defence, they are always going to offer something in attack, but that can be good for England, as you want them to throw the ball around and take chances.
"Eddie Jones has talked about hunting and going after teams and at the moment I don't think he's really got them to do that, but this Scotland defence could provide that opportunity.
"I thought they targeted Rhys Patchell well in the Wales game, but it would be nice to see them hunting tries.
"I was still impressed with England against Wales, but I think everyone wants to see them throwing the ball around a bit more and produce the sort of performance which they haven't really had since the Australia tour Down Under."
- Tindall was among the former internationals competing in the Tournoi des 6 Stations Orangina [The 6 Stations Tournament] on the snow in the French Alps from February 12-18. For more information on the event visit http://tournoides6stations.com/en/
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Warren, if you think you should stay on coaching Wales, you are beyond deluded. If you love Wales & Welsh rugby as much as you say you do (& I'm sure you probably do) you should resign immediately so this once proud & passionate rugby nation can rebuild without you. How many of your players will make the British & Irish Lions squad.?
It's time to walk the plank.!
Go to commentsYeah nar I pretty much agree with that sentiment, wasn't just about the lineout though.
Yeah, I think it's the future of SR, even TRC. Graham above just now posting about how good a night it was with a dbl header of ENGvSA and NZvFrance, and now I don't want to kick SA or Argentina out of TRC but it would be great if in this next of the woods 2 more top teams could come in to create more of these sort of nights (for rugby's appeal). Often Arg and SA and both travel here and you get those games but more often doesn't work out right.
Obviously a long way off but USA and Japan are the obvious two. First thing we need to do is get Eddie Jones kicked out of Japan so they can start improving again and then get a couple of US teams in SRP (even if one its just a US based and augmented Jaguares).
It will start off the whole conferences are crap debate again (which I will continue to argue vehemently against), but imagine a 6 team Pacific conference, Tokyo Sunwolves (drafted from Tokyo JRLO teams), Tokyo All Stars (made up of best remaining foreign players and overseas drafts), ALL Nihon (best of local non Tokyo based talent, inc China/Korea etc, with mainland Japan), a could of West Coast american franchises and perhaps a second self PI driven Hawai'i based team, or Jagaures. So I see a short NFL like 3 or 4 month comp as fitting best, maybe not even a full round, NZvAUSvPAC, all games taking place within a 6hr window. Model for NZ will definitely still require a competitive and funded NPC!
On the Crusaders, I liked last years ending with Grace on the bench (ovbiously form dependent but thats how it ended) and Lio-Willie at 8. I could have Blackadder trying to be a 7 but think balance will be used with him at 6 and Kellow as 7. Scott Barrett is an international 6 sized player. It is just NZ style/model that pushes him into the tight, I reckon he'd be a great loose player, and saders have Strange and Cahill as bigger players (plus that change could draw someone like Darry back). Same with Haig now, hes not grown yet but Barrett hight and been playing 6, now that the Highlanders have only chosen two locks he'll be playing lock, and that is going to change his growth trajectory massively, rather than seeing him grow like an International 6.
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