Northern Edition

Select Edition

Northern Northern
Southern Southern
Global Global
New Zealand New Zealand
France France

How 'really coachable' 19-year-old produced a 20-minute MOTM cameo

(Photo by David Rogers/Getty Images)

Last Sunday presented an incredible situation for the 19-year-old London Irish rookie Henry Arundell to capture the imagination and become the latest taxi off the academy ranks to get spoken about in glowing terms in the Gallagher Premiership. The Exiles were facing a heavy defeat when the youngster entered the fray at Brentford, Declan Kidney’s team trailing by 25-points and looking like a badly beaten side. 

ADVERTISEMENT

However, an extraordinary turnaround was to take place and when the match came to a conclusion, London Irish had amazingly secured a 42-all draw and Arundell was awarded the man of the match by BT Sport for a 20-minute contribution that included a chip, chase and collect try and an assist. 

It was only the sixth ever Premiership appearance so far in the young full-back career of Arundell at the Irish, with whom he won an academy league title and was also involved with the England U18s and U20s. He will now take a spot on the club’s bench for this Sunday’s Challenge Cup quarter-final away to Toulon and head coach Les Kiss couldn’t be happier for the kid.

Video Spacer

Alex Lozowski – Pigs Head Initiation’s, Learning from Andy Goode & Playing For Chelsea FC | RugbyPass Offload | Episode 32

Video Spacer

Alex Lozowski – Pigs Head Initiation’s, Learning from Andy Goode & Playing For Chelsea FC | RugbyPass Offload | Episode 32

“He has got a good sense of humour, he is deliberate in terms of how he goes about his conversations, I want to improve this, I want to work on that, how do I do this. He is very attentive to all his detail and is very deliberate with his work,” explained Kiss when asked by RugbyPass what sort of a character Arundell is in the Irish set-up.

“Away from that he works hard and smart to be able to say where do my strengths come through and where are my one or two things I have got to work on, and when you give him something to work on he just takes it and eats it up. The same with Will Joseph, they are both really coachable boys.

Related

“I’m really pleased that those young guys, even Tom Pearson earlier in the year and Juan Gonzalez, they haven’t just gone out there and played conservative. They need to find out how good they can be. The reason I’m pleased is we are giving bandwidth to find out who they are and that bandwidth means they may make a mistake. 

Even Henry said he dropped the first ball (against Wasps). He could have stopped there and said I’ll make sure I don’t make another mistake, but he backs what he is… I’m really pleased those young guys are saying I will try to play my hand, challenge my skill set and see what comes out of it. That is a really pleasing thing. 

ADVERTISEMENT

“It doesn’t mean we don’t expect errors, it means I’d rather look on the positive things you can do rather than take away what you are good at and be error-free. If you are error-free you are going to get nowhere, so that is really pleasing from a coaching perspective, from a club perspective. We want these young guys to find out how good they can be and the environment I hope allows them to do that

“But the biggest thing for the likes of Henry and Will Joseph, Juan, Tom Pearson and the other youngsters, Chunya (Munga), they work hard, they are humble but they don’t subjugate themselves to any greater power. They still want to be who they are and we explicitly say stretch your skillset and find out how good you can be. 

“Don’t sit underneath everyone, make sure you put your head above the parapet and see how good you can be, and that is a really big thing for us. That was part of the reason when we built the squad we brought a lot of good experience in, some internationals, so that is a bit of a safety net for them where they can express themselves with good experience around them.”

LONDON IRISH (vs Toulon, Sunday): 15. Tom Parton; 14. Kyle Rowe, 13. Curtis Rona, 12. Benhard van Rensburg, 11. Ollie Hassell-Collins; 10. Paddy Jackson, 9. Ben White; 1. Facundo Gigena, 2. Agustin Creevy, 3. Marcel van der Merwe, 4. Adam Coleman, 5. Rob Simmons, 6. Matt Rogerson (capt), 7. Juan Martin Gonzalez, 8. Albert Tuisue. Reps: 16. Matt Cornish, 17. Will Goodrick-Clarke, 18. Ollie Hoskins, 19. Steve Mafi, 20. Tom Pearson, 21. Nick Phipps, 22. Will Joseph, 23. Henry Arundell.

ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT

LIVE

{{item.title}}

Trending on RugbyPass

Comments

0 Comments
Be the first to comment...

Join free and tell us what you really think!

Sign up for free
ADVERTISEMENT

Latest Features

Comments on RugbyPass

O
Oh no, not him again? 2 hours ago
England internationals disagree on final play execution vs All Blacks

Okay, so we blew it big time on Saturday. So rather than repeating what most people have all ready said, what do I want to see from Borthwick going forward?


Let's keep Marcus Smith on the pitch if he's fit and playing well. I was really pleased with his goal kicking. It used to be his weakness. I feel sympathy for George Ford who hadn't kicked all match and then had a kick to win the game. You hear pundits and commentators commend kickers who have come off the bench and pulled that off. Its not easy. If Steve B continues to substitute players with no clear reason then he is going to get criticised.


On paper I thought England would beat NZ if they played to their potential and didn't show NZ too much respect. Okay, the off the ball tackles certainly stopped England scoring tries, but I would have liked to see more smashing over gainlines and less kicking for position. Yes, I also know it's the Springbok endorsed world cup double winning formula but the Kiwi defence isn't the Bok defence, is it. If you have the power to put Smith on the front foot then why muzzle him? I guess what I'm saying is back, yourself. Why give the momentum to a team like NZ? Why feed the beast? Don't give the ball to NZ. Well d'uh.


Our scrum is a long term weakness. If you are going to play Itoje then he needs an ogre next door and a decent front row. Where is our third world class lock? Where are are realible front row bench replacements? The England scrum has been flakey for a while now. It blows hot and cold. Our front five bench is not world class.


On the positive side I love our starting backrow right now. I'd like to see them stick together through to the next world cup.


Anyway, there is always another Saturday.

7 Go to comments
C
CO 2 hours ago
Scott Robertson responds to criticism over All Blacks' handling errors

Robertson is more a manager of coaches than a coach so it comes down to intent of outcomes at a high level. I like his intent, I like the fact his Allblacks are really driving the outcomes however as he's pointed out the high error rates are not test level and their control of the game is driving both wins and losses. England didn't have to play a lot of rugby, they made far fewer mistakes and were extremely unlucky not to win.


In fact the English team were very early in their season and should've been comfortably beaten by an Allblacks team that had played multiple tests together.


Razor has himself recognised that to be the best they'll have to sort out the crisis levels of mistakes that have really increased since the first two tests against England.


Early tackles were a classic example of hyper enthusiasm to not give an inch, that passion that Razor has achieved is going to be formidable once the unforced errors are eliminated.


That's his secret, he's already rebuilt the passion and that's the most important aspect, its inevitable that he'll now eradicate the unforced errors. When that happens a fellow tier one nation is going to get thrashed. I don't think it will be until 2025 though.


The Allblacks will lose both tests against Ireland and France if they play high error rates rugby like they did against England.


To get the unforced errors under control he's going to be needing to handover the number eight role to Sititi and reset expectations of what loose forwards do. Establish a clear distinction with a large, swarthy lineout jumper at six that is a feared runner and dominant tackler and a turnover specialist at seven that is abrasive in contact. He'll then need to build depth behind the three starters and ruthlessly select for that group to be peaking in 2027 in hit Australian conditions on firm, dry grounds.


It's going to help him that Savea is shifting to the worst super rugby franchise where he's going to struggle behind a beaten pack every week.


The under performing loose forward trio is the key driver of the high error rates and unacceptable turn overs due to awol link work. Sititi is looking like he's superman compared to his openside and eight.


At this late stage in the season they shouldn't be operating with just the one outstanding loose forward out of four selected for the English test. That's an abject failure but I think Robertson's sacrificing link quality on purpose to build passion amongst the junior Allblacks as they see the reverential treatment the old warhorses are receiving for their long term hard graft.


It's unfortunately losing test matches and making what should be comfortable wins into nail biters but it's early in the world cup cycle so perhaps it's a sacrifice worth making.


However if this was F1 then Sam Cane would be Riccardo and Ardie would be heading into Perez territory so the loose forwards desperately need revitalisation through a rebuild over the next season to complement the formidable tight five.

28 Go to comments
LONG READ
LONG READ “He’s given Connacht everything” – Bundee Aki’s future, and an exciting tactical innovation “He’s given Connacht everything” – Bundee Aki’s future, and an exciting tactical innovation
Search