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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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J
JW 56 minutes ago
Let's be real about these All Blacks

I didn't really get the should tone from it, but maybe because I was just reading it as my own thoughts.


What I read it as was examples of how they played well enough in every game to be able to win it.


Yeah I dunno if Ben wouldn't see it that way (someone else would for sure need to point it out to him though), I'm more in the Ben not appreciating that those close losses werent one off scenarios camp. Sure you can look at dubious decisions causing them to have to play with 14 or 13 men at the death as viable reasons but even in the games they won without such difficulties they made a real struggle of it (compared to how good some of their first half play was). This kind of article where you trying to point out the 3 losses really would most likely have been wins only really makes sense/works when your other performances make those 3 games (or endings) stand out.


There might have been a sentence here and there to ensure some good comment numbers but when he's signing off the article by saying things like ..

Whilst these All Blacks aren’t blowing teams off the park like during the 2010s, they are nuggety and resourceful and don’t wilt. They are prepared to win the hard way, accumulating points by any means necessary.

and..

The other top sides in the world struggled to put them away. France and South Africa both could have well been defeated on home soil.

I don't really see it. Always making sure people are upto date with the SH standing/perspective! NZ went through some tough times with so many different perspectives and reasons why, but then it was.. amusing how.. behind everyone was once they turned a corner. More of these 'unfortunate' results returned against SA and France at the start of the RWC which made it extra tasty to catch other teams out when they did bring it. So that created some 'conscious' perspective that I just kept going and sharing re thoughts on similar predicaments of other teams, I had been really confident that Wallabies displays vs NZ were real, that the Argentines can backup their thing against Aus and SA (and so obviously the rest), and current one is that England are actually consistent and improving with their attack (which everyone should get onboard with), and I'm expecting a more dominant display against Japan (even though they should have more of their experienced internationals for this one) that highlights further growth from July. 👍

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