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Clive Woodward outlines his fears for England

Owen Farrell and (right) Sir Clive Woodward

Sir Clive Woodward fears England’s indiscipline could deny them Rugby World Cup glory in Japan.

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Woodward believes England have a “real chance” of emulating the side he led to World Cup success in 2003, but has concerns over their ability to keep 15 players on the pitch.

“There’s many strengths, they’ve got this very powerful team,” Woodward said of an England team who play their tournament opener against Tonga next Sunday.

“This is what I call an x-factor team. But quite a few of the starting XV have got a track record of losing it in a game when under pressure.

“There’s been a lot of focus on the rules regarding neck-high tackles, and if you’re playing (pool rivals) France and Argentina, top teams, and get a guy sent off then the chance of winning that game is going to be very difficult.

“We saw recently (Scott) Barrett get sent off for New Zealand v Australia and they had a record score against them.

“You need every single player to play under pressure and play within the laws of the game.

“That’s the only chink I see (with England), they’ve got a real chance if they can play in the right way and keep 15 players on the pitch.”

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Woodward believes Australian Jones has done an excellent job since being appointed after England’s failure to make the knockout stages at the 2015 World Cup.

He told BBC Radio: “Eddie came into the job thinking English rugby is tough and combustible, as he’s called it.

“He’s built an England team around how he saw England playing in the past. They are tough and very aggressive, the key thing to me is they’ve got to play quick.

“It doesn’t matter how tough and physical you are, if you play slowly you are not going to win. If they can play at a real pace they have got every chance.”

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Woodward expects England to make the final in Yokohama on November 2 but concedes they will have to do it “the hard way”.

On their main rivals, he said: “South Africa have come together well, it’s the first time they’ve selected their best players from all around the world so they’ve got a very strong team.

“New Zealand are not quite the scary team they were four years ago, but I still think they’re going to be the team to beat.

“Whoever wins that (pool) game between South Africa and New Zealand will play England in the semi-final if they go well.

“England will have to do it the hard way to win it, as they will play Australia or Wales in the quarter-final.

“But I think an England-South Africa final will be fantastic.”

JONES AND FARRELL PROVIDE UPDATE FROM MIYAZAKI

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B
BC 7 minutes ago
Black Ferns reward 18-year-old's form in team to face Wallaroos

Yes, I think that NZ have to work on their forward play if they are going to go the whole way again. I don’t know too much about your forwards but there do seem to be some familiar names still being selected that have come up short in the past. You have considerable talent in the backs but you will need the ball. There is much truth in the saying “forwards win matches and the backs decide by how many”. I would agree with your comment about Leti-I’iga and Woodman has a lot to assimilate in very few matches as a possible 13, perhaps the hardest position to play. I shall watch your match on Saturday with much interest, though not in the middle of our night.


Unfortunately two of Ireland’s top forwards have been ruled out by injury. I’m not sure they have enough depth to cope with that in the latter stages of the WC.


The performance of France at Twickenham was a surprise, you never know which French team will turn up. Having said that, for most of the match they were second best, but some slack tackling, complacency?, and their Gallic pride got them close on the scoreboard. I was there and whilst eventually grateful for the final whistle, we never felt their late flourish would prevail. When the Mexican wave starts after 25 minutes, you know the crowd thinks it’s already all over. You are right though, do not write off the French, they have strong forwards and flair in the backs. Give them an inch and they will take a mile. On their day they are a real handful for any team.

4 Go to comments
B
BigGabe 41 minutes ago
'Love him or hate him, Henry Pollock has got the rugby world talking.'

Fair commentary. I am not sure it would probably work against him though, since his temmates have come out and said that they enjoy it. Similarly, Irish fans seem to enjoy Lowe’s celebrating and English fans their “plastic energy” players.


Oof, that Stormers comment..as a Stormers fan, it hurts to be a Stormers fan. We can be so good, but also we can collapse like a house of cards. I do think that there is a line, I would agree with you. But I also very much think that the rugby public blows it out of proportion when someone gets exuberant (Lowe annoys the daylights out of me, but that’s his game and he is good at it. I am sure plenty of people find Faf annoying too). I’m not sure rugby will go the way of the NFL though, I do think that on a cultural level rugby playing nations (and the cultural demographics that go into playing rugby) differ vastly from the US. The US as a nation is very much about bravado. Similarly, the argument about rugby devolving into football, it is a sport that rewards theatrics so naturally theatrics enter into the culture. I don’t see rugby going that way, there is something different about rugby and the people that it attracts. Perhaps it is the gladiatorial aspect, or the lack of insultingly large paychecks. I am not sure, it would be interesting to conduct a study on this to be honest.


Yes, my examples go back quite far and are sporadic inbetween. But this makes me wonder - does rugby not have so many showboats because it doesn’t attract showboats or because it doesn’t allow showboats?

13 Go to comments
W
Werner 1 hour ago
URC teams aren't proving Stephen Donald wrong

3 things:


1) I don't think you have an understanding of what sort of politics goes on in SA, you are assuming it's very competitive and performance focused same as NZ, I can tell you it's a lot greyer and more ambiguous but green and gold goes along way in greasing wheels. Often revenue at the state and national level are prized more by some in the SARU despite the impact of accepting it, but you will never heard them own it.


2) While we're comparing national teams performance to gauge the ‘domestic’ comps, you do realise that both Ireland and Scotland are higher in rankings and have better recent record than Fiji and Australia who are in the SRP right? And when was the last time either of them made a final in SR? 2014! But here's the thing…. I never said URC is better than SRP, imo they are about the same each with their benefits and different style. Where as you harp on about how crap URC teams are but not why SRP is better. Have SRP teams faired better against European teams? No? So how do you know and ‘demonstrate’ this inferiority? both have a range of good and bad countries competing (URC has slightly more higher ranked teams). Both are dominated historically by one country and team (Leinster/crusaders). So what is this demonstrable fact I'm missing? What's the point of difference other than subjective opinion


3) let me understand this, the only decent team in the URC is Leinster as they are good enough to make Eurochamps finals but not good enough to make the finals of the URC the last 2 years. So they despite beating Leinster (the EC finalists and good team) the other URC teams are still crap?

50 Go to comments
P
PR 1 hour ago
'Love him or hate him, Henry Pollock has got the rugby world talking.'

There are degrees of taunting. In my opinion Pollock is slightly OTT. Nothing offensive, just what Australians call “a goose”. Like James Lowe and Ben Earl. Celebrating wildly and often towards the crowd throughout the game. “Plastic energy” as Bongi calls it. It’s the kind of behaviour that turns a hostile crowd more hostile and motivates opponents even more - so probably works against your own team. Pollock is young and having the time of his life so his antics are understandable but I think most people find that kind of showboating annoying - hence the ‘love him or hate him’ tag.


The reason why the behaviour of Pollock makes headlines is because it is still quite rare in rugby. Your examples go back to 1974, 2003 and 2022. Of course there are chirps between players during a game but what Pollock is doing is more like the showboating you see after a touchdown in NFL. He’s not the only one of course. Just about every Stormers try comes with an elaborate handshake or routine. Perhaps the future of rugby is more like NFL but I reckon it will always be annoying to a lot of people.


Also, unless you are Matt Williams or Gregor Townsend, 6-2/7-1 was never against the spirit of the game. It’s an argument brought up by pundits to get attention or frustrated coaches who are trying to justify poor results. Most coaches, players and supporters get it. Even World Rugby gave it the thumbs up. It should be celebrated for its innovation.

13 Go to comments
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LONG READ 'Love him or hate him, Henry Pollock has got the rugby world talking.' 'Love him or hate him, Henry Pollock has got the rugby world talking.'
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