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'He scared me' - John Mitchell's influence as England defence coach

John Mitchell (right) with Dylan Hartley. Photo: Dan Mullan/Getty Images.

England defence coach John Mitchell has been praised for his role in making England a genuine World Cup threat by former England midfielder Will Greenwood.

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Greenwood, who won the World Cup in 2003, told Radio Sport that Mitchell was continually tweaking England’s defensive strategies in a grand scheme to make the Eddie Jones-coached side the most “ferocious defensive unit” on the planet.

“When Eddie Jones took over in January 2016, they wanted to make themselves the most ferocious defensive unit on the planet,” he said.

“They are not there yet but are doing a pretty passable impression of it at the moment. It is ferocious out there.

“Life is about iterations, tweaking, adapting. They are not changing anything massively. They wanted line speed and have worked on it really well.”

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Greenwood, capped 57 times internationally, was coached by Mitchell in the late 1990s when he assisted then-England head coach Sir Clive Woodward, and the 46-year-old revealed how intimidating the former All Blacks coach was.

“He used to always say ‘let the dog be the rabbit’ in a slightly different tone,” said Greenwood.

“It scared the living daylights out of me and certainly introduced to me what life was like in New Zealand in terms of the ferocity of your rucking. He was proper, proper tough.”

Following England’s impressive run in the Six Nations in the opening two rounds, Greenwood remained quietly optimistic of their World Cup chances come the end of the year, although he refused to discount the threats posed by New Zealand and Ireland.

“The All Blacks have set the bar in terms of of retaining credibility as the number one. Ireland had the most unbelievable year in 2018 but they are having a bit of a blip, a bit of a wobble.

“England were supercharged and went out and battered them on the gain line, but Ireland will come again.

“Ireland will finish the Six Nations strong and be ready for the World Cup. They had such a big year in 2018 and it is difficult to keep going to the well. But they will be a force to be reckoned with in Japan.

“I’ve upgraded England’s status — they will be in the semifinals and who can predict after that?”

Eddie Jones and Owen Farrell on facing Wales:

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M
MO 23 minutes ago
Half-back depth is the flaw in 'Razor's' 4-4-4 Rugby World Cup plan

Yes the team selection for the ABs vs Italy was one of the most perplexing things I have ever seen from an AB coach. It showed the Razor was too scared… compare that to Rassie. When you have a scared coach, its a recipe for disaster. Instead of giving some of the young guns a chance, he chose to play players who had played England, Ireland and France on successive Saturdays, they were “shot” - it was a win, but the team looked beat and lacked any real drive.


Razor has shown already this year, that he sees this as a mistake. But even then there were some strange decisions for the 3rd French test. Bower in for Norris - Norris is the future, Bower is not. Dropping Proctor for ALB was also weird, given ALB hasnt played in 2 months and basically we know what he can and cant do. Proctor would have benefited from a 3rd straight game. Now I know some people will say ALB scored a try - 5 points. I would say, he also gave away two penalties, where the French scored 6 points.


Finally, the return of Sevu Reece - while I dont dispute at SR level he’s a star, and he really works to get involved. But unfortunately, he lacks the real speed to be an international winger - he was left behind by Jordan for his try, and I cant forget the French winger burning him for pace last November. OK I understand Clarke and Ioane were injured, and the seem not to like Narawa - but this says our winger stocks are pretty low if we have to rely on Sevu.

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