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What Chile make of Borthwick's 'pragmatic, organised' England
By PA
Chile head coach Pablo Lemoine has insisted that his Rugby World Cup newcomers must embrace the biggest fixture in their history when they clash with England on Saturday.
Los Condores have gone down fighting against Japan and Samoa so far but in Steve Borthwick’s team, they face the heavyweights of Pool D.
“We do not have opportunities to play against the tier one. To improve, we must take advantage of these opportunities,” Lemoine said. “You have to play and enjoy it because it is surely the most important game in Chile’s history.
“England have a pragmatic, organised game. A lot of kicking game, a lot of strategy, with high-class players looking to counter-attack. I imagine a lot of aggressiveness in the forwards.
“We have been watching them. We saw their games with Argentina and Japan, and ultimately we will have to be intelligent and not commit penalties because it is an important platform for them. I hope we can accomplish that part of the plan.”
Chile captain Martin Sigren, who played for Doncaster in the Championship, believes facing England is the chance of a lifetime for his side.
“It’s a huge challenge. There are very few opportunities one has to face a team with as much history as England and on a Rugby World Cup stage. We want to take advantage of it and enjoy it to the fullest,” Sigren said.
“They are going to look to exhaust us emotionally and see if we give up, which will make it easier for them. That is what we want to fight and it is the most important challenge. We have to be in the fight and battle during the 80 minutes regardless of the score."
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Latest Comments
It is if he thinks he’s got hold of the ball and there is at least one other player between him and the ball carrier, which is why he has to reach around and over their heads. Not a deliberate action for me.
Go to commentsI understand, but England 30 years ago were a set piece focused kick heavy team not big on using backs.
Same as now.
South African sides from any period will have a big bunch of forwards smashing it up and a first five booting everything in their own half.
NZ until recently rarely if ever scrummed for penalties; the scrum is to attack from, broken play, not structured is what we’re after.
Same as now.
These are ways of playing very ingrained into the culture.
If you were in an English club team and were off to Fiji for a game against a club team you’d never heard of and had no footage of, how would you prepare?
For a forward dominated grind or would you assume they will throw the ball about because they are Fijian?
A Fiji way. An English way.
An Australian way depends on who you’ve scraped together that hasn’t been picked off by AFL or NRL, and that changes from generation to generation a lot of the time.
Actually, maybe that is their style. In fact, yes they have a style.
Nevermind. Fuggit I’ve typed it all out now.
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