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Adam Radwan learning from Jason Robinson as he seeks England recall

By Chris Jones
Adam Radwan (Photo by Dan Mullan/The RFU Collection via Getty Images)

Newcastle Falcons flyer Adam Radwan has been studying videos of England wing Chris Ashton, the Gallagher Premiership’s record try scorer, and World Cup winner Jason Robinson in a bid to restart his own international career.

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Radwan made his full England debut and scored a hat-trick of tries in a 70-14 victory against Canada at Twickenham in 2021 and scored again in the big win over Tonga three years ago, but has not been capped under head coach Steve Borthwick, although he has taken part in training squads.

It is Radwan’s pace that marks the 26-year-old out as a special talent and Borthwick has been keeping tabs on his progress under Steve Diamond, the Newcastle director of rugby, who has used those videos of Ashton and Robinson to highlight the importance of coming off your wing to look for try-scoring chances.

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The wing only got a one opportunity to run at the Bristol defence in the 70th minute of the team’s opening day 24-3 loss and getting Radwan into the action is a priority for Diamond and his coaches.

Diamond, who takes his team to Harlequins on Saturday hoping to end a run of 22 league defeats, said: “We have been through a couple of videos of Jason Robinson and Chris Ashton showing how those player go looking for the ball.

Fixture
Gallagher Premiership
Harlequins
10:00
28 Sep 24
Newcastle
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“I think it was hard on Radwan against Bristol because we had a really attritional game and it was 5-3 at half time and we didn’t have any ball in the second half so you cannot blame a winger for no ball. It’s difficult to go looking for it if you haven’t got it.

“I rate Radwan massively, he has got quick feet, is electric and is a great lad. He is at the forefront of all our decision-making, first to training and last away. He doesn’t whinge or moan and ticks all the boxes and if we can get a foothold in games then get the ball to him as many times as we can.

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“Steve Borthwick has been up here as has Mark Mapletoft, the England U20s coach, and the England conditioners have been here and I don’t know if we are doing something right or wrong but it’s good they are voting with their feet and coming up to Newcastle. We have regular dialogue and we just need to win some games. With England A playing this season then Radwan, Callum Chick and Jamie Blamire are three who are outstanding players.

“I know for a fact having been in a similar position with Sale 14 or 15 years ago where people were worried they were not being picked because of the position of the club that is not true here because the relationship with the England coaches is as good as I have ever had it. You can see a gem in whatever environment they are playing in for recognition.”

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Tom 2 hours ago

We haven't had a winger with this much gas since Robinson, he's probably as quick as LRZ, not as big but shorter legs are more agile. He skinned Ibitoye with one boot on last season! It'd be a travesty if England never got the best out of him. If we can't harness this level of raw athleticism what are we even doing? It's not like he's a bad or lazy player, he's just a rough diamond.

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Poorfour 34 minutes ago
Why aren't New Zealand's mighty teams scoring like they used to?

I'm surprised to read that about France, because their international team is so competitive. On the other hand, Elite 1 has been running for over 50 years, so the amateur game is deeply rooted (and I would not be surprised to learn that many of their key players have rugby-related jobs for the local pro men's team).


But I am not so sure I'd be keen to rip up the rule book. While there is a way to go to have a sustainable game, the international game has a good competitive structure in the regional competitions and WXV1, and the English PWR league is growing rapidly. Both of those have been revised in the last couple of years with a view to having a model that can build to sustainable full professionalism within the next decade.


RWC2025 will be critical to that. The choice of venues has been selected to maximise the reach of who can attend, and the aim of selling out the Allianz (and setting a world record) for the Bronze & Final double header. They are off to a good start - apparently all 55,000 pre-sale tickets for the opening and closing games have already been sold.


Key for the global game (with so many international players playing pro rugby in England) is to use the build up and tournament to grow interest in the club game, and then follow through by encouraging people to come and watch the playuers they saw on the global stage.


WR and the RFU are very committed to making this work - not least because the women's pro game can leverage the infrastructure for the men's game, meaning it should be able to get to profitability much faster. Given the men's game is constrained in how far and fast it can grow by the number of games the players can play, that's critical to the success of the game as a whole.

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