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Shambolic no more: Kevin Sinfield explains improved England defence

(Photo by Dan Mullan/Getty Images)

Defence coach Kevin Sinfield has delivered his verdict on the rapidly improved England rearguard. Steve Borthwick’s team arrived at the Rugby World Cup with a crisis on its hands following the concession of 30 tries in nine matches in 2023 – a leakage on average every 25 minutes.

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However, that wounding weakness has since been remedied with England negotiating their three September games in France versus Argentina, Japan and Chile at the loss of just a single try in 240 minutes, putting an end for now to negatives August headlines such as “Kevin Sinfield’s defence is utterly shambolic”.

The litmus test, of course, is on the horizon with an October 15 quarter-final looming in Marseille after this Saturday’s pool finale takes place versus Samoa in Lille. In the meantime, though, what has changed with the England defence and why is it now snuffing out the opposition unlike before?

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“We try and make it important,” suggested Sinfield, the former rugby league great who initially switched to coaching in union under Borthwick at Leicester. “What we showed in August wasn’t a reflection of how hard the lads had worked and how we trained. We have obviously improved since then; we have got to continue improving.

“We have tried a number of different ways to create buy-in and get it to land… in general, my view is it is all about the players and if you can get the players on the same page and create the right environment for them, these guys want to defend. I have no doubt about it.”

“I said from day one every player I came across wanted to wear the badge, desperate to put an England shirt on, and we show a lot of that in how we defend and what we have done for each other. The last few weeks have been a massive step forward but, as I said on Friday last week, there is plenty of improvements still in us.

“Try and find different ways of making it important but the guys know that. Typically the best defensive team in any competition wins the league or the cup. We understand that and know how important it is.”

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While the concession of just one try in three matches is currently the best record out of all 20 teams at the tournament, Sinfield won’t get carried away with Samoa and potentially Fiji in the quarter-finals the next two fixtures for England.

“I never think it is perfect. When you have got an opposition with some of the quality we have faced so far and will face moving forward, especially on Saturday, we can’t expect to have it all our own way.

“But what I have been happy to see is how hard they have been prepared to cover each other’s backsides. We’ll get split, we’ll get broken, we’ll concede penalties at times but our attitude and mindset to defend our try line is really, really important. The guys certainly have that at the minute.”

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Comments

6 Comments
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Nigel 441 days ago

We will meet Fiji in the quarters (bar some freak results) and with Earl and Curry in decent form should get through that. Would like to see more influence on the scoreboard from the backs but we're looking a different side to the shambolic pre RWC team. Still can't see us getting past the semis unless we get SA with a neutral team of officials.

P
Phil 441 days ago

They have not faced any of the top teams yet.

F
Fritz 441 days ago

Confidence all what was needed to make them a dangerous candidate and we all knew that, I was thinking the same about Australia but not to be

E
Ed 441 days ago

Certainly a good defensive effort in the first game, although they were forced by the early red card to play a very structured game. Japan missed chances to do more damage, while Chile was a mis-match. So yes, just the one try against so far. That helps them build some helpful belief, a bit like Wales' fitness mantra. We'll see how this defence stands up to a proper stress test, but my feeling is that they're still a fragile team against stronger opponents.

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fl 22 minutes ago
‘The problem with this year’s Champions Cup? Too many English clubs’

"Yes I was the one who suggested to use a UEFA style point. And I guessed, that based on the last 5 years we should start with 6 top14, 6 URC and 4 Prem."

Yes I am aware that you suggested it, but you then went on to say that we should initially start with a balance that clearly wasn't derived from that system. I'm not a mind reader, so how was I to work out that you'd arrived at that balance by dint of completely having failed to remember the history of the competition.


"Again, I was the one suggesting that, but you didn't like the outcome of that."

I have no issues with the outcome of that, I had an issue with a completely random allocation of teams that you plucked out of thin air.

Interestingly its you who now seem to be renouncing the UEFA style points system, because you don't like the outcome of reducing URC representation.


"4 teams for Top14, URC and Prem, 3 teams for other leagues and the last winner, what do you think?"

What about 4 each + 4 to the best performing teams in last years competition not to have otherwise qualified? Or what about a UEFA style system where places are allocated to leagues on the basis of their performance in previous years' competitions?

There's no point including Black Lion if they're just going to get whitewashed every year, which I think would be a possibility. At most I'd support 1 team from the Rugby Europe Super Cup, or the Russian Championship being included. Maybe the best placed non-Israeli team and the Russian winners could play off every year for the spot? But honestly I think its best if they stay limited to the Challenge Cup for now.

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