1
Wales knew choking England enough would see discipline crack - Callum Sheedy
By PA
Callum Sheedy says Wales knew that England’s discipline would crack “if we could choke them enough” after he put the boot into Eddie Jones’ team.
England conceded a damaging 14 penalties in their 40-24 Guinness Six Nations defeat at the Principality Stadium.
And they imploded during the final quarter when substitute Sheedy kicked three penalties in nine minutes during a 16-point unanswered burst by Wales that meant Triple Crown glory and left them two wins away from a second Grand Slam in three seasons.
“It’s tough to say whether you are surprised teams give away penalties,” Bristol fly-half Sheedy said.
“It is like anything – if a team is under pressure, discipline starts to get a bit wavy.
“I haven’t watched the game back and whether they were, or were not, penalties. I don’t really care, to be honest.
“We knew if we could choke them enough, they would get ill-disciplined. Thankfully, that happened.”
While England begin to pick through the pieces of a Six Nations campaign in rubble, Wales march on with 14 points from a possible 15 in this season’s competition.
Tournament no-hopers Italy are next up on March 13, before Sheedy and company head to Paris for a Saturday night appointment with France seven days later.
Victories in both games would secure a fifth Six Nations clean sweep and sixth title, but Sheedy knows how quickly things can change – for better or worse.
“I couldn’t kick snow off a rope two weeks ago (against Scotland), according to the public, and now I will probably be a decent kicker!” he added.
“The people who build you up are the same people who shoot you down. You’ve got to take it with a pinch of salt.
“I hope the Welsh people enjoy this win, as they should. In tough, testing times, it’s great to get a win over England, and they should enjoy every minute of it.”
Sheedy is just seven Tests into his international career, yet he has already proved an integral part of Wales’ armoury under head coach Wayne Pivac.
And the 25-year-old has been around long enough to understand that this season’s big Six Nations prizes are still to be achieved.
“Let’s take each game as it comes and not get carried away with Grand Slam chat,” he said. “We will keep our feet firmly on the ground. We will enjoy the Triple Crown, and then a big week ahead of Italy.
“Grand Slam might be said in the public, but it won’t be said in the circle. (Captain) Alun Wyn Jones won’t let it.
“Al, I know for a fact, won’t let any complacency get into this squad, and rightly so. We haven’t done anything yet.”
Click on the image below to sign up for Super Rugby Aotearoa on RugbyPass:
Trending on RugbyPass
2
All Blacks XV player ratings vs Munster
3
Suaalii strikes awe as Wallabies lose midfielder
4
Scott Robertson responds about handling errors
5
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.
Go to comments