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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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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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