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The Handre Pollard advice that England's Finn Carnduff has lapped up
By Liam Heagney
Finn Carnduff is living the rugby dream. Last Friday night the 19-year-old stepped off the Gallagher Premiership bench to help Leicester see out their win over Harlequins; this Friday night he will skipper the England U20s when they open their Six Nations campaign away to Italy in Treviso. Lovely.
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He is the third Leicester youngster in succession to be appointed age-grade captain, following in the slipstream of Emeka Ilione and Lewis Chessum, and Tigers’ inner sanctum has been his university regarding how best to skipper a team. Just look at the names he has recently been in the ear of.
“The value you get at playing at such a high level as that and players like Handre Pollard, Jasper Wiese, guys who have won a World Cup, the amount of value they give you with questions they ask and experience they have got, you just learn from them and it makes you a better player.”
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So what words of wisdom have especially stuck in the mind? “It’s just want would you do in certain situations, particularly from Handre’s point of view having the captaincy role, in these pressure situations what are you thinking, how are you staying so cool-headed, how are you not letting the situation get the better of you and making sure you are staying in the moment and not getting too overwhelmed.”
Getting overwhelmed isn’t something you’d fear happening to Carnduff on duty with England. “We have got plenty experience of Finn captaining age-group teams and if we didn’t feel he was the right person for it, we would have given it to someone else,” enthused U20s coach Mark Mapletoft. “He understands the importance of driving high standards and wanting to be the best.”
Leicester, then, is proving the best pathway for Carnduff’s development. “I have been a Leicester fan my whole life so quite nice to win with them, a bit of a dream come through to play,” he said harking back to last weekend’s 16-minute appearance in London.
“I remember them [Harlequins] scoring the final try and thinking, ‘Oh no, we have lost this game’. And then thankfully we managed to get over the line. Great result and for me, very happy with the honour to play in the Prem. The team win was huge.”
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His recent increase in size helped. “I have put a bit of weight on, about 110 kilos now,” he replied when asked if the 106kgs listed on the Leicester website at the start of this season was still accurate.
“It doesn’t come easy. I’m sure most boys would say putting weight on is a slow process, a lot of hard work off the pitch both nutrition-wise and in the gym. But if you are disciplined with it all it does come in the end. The hard work pays off
Winning collisions is a huge emphasis for the 6ft 4in England blindside who comfortably doubles up as a lock. “That versatility for me is huge, it’s something I feel a lot of players can use. Having the ability to play multiple positions is valuable.
“Collisions within our game plan, we want to be a physical team and we want to dominate the collision area so it’s something we have been working on and for me, that is another area of my game that I am looking to develop as well.
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“Italy are always strong, they come with a very good forward pack, a physical team, like to get into an arm wrestle with teams. We completely respect Italy but we are going to go to Treviso and play our game, play the way we want to play and get the result.
“We have got a lot of new lads in, fresh faces which is nice. There was a good group out in South Africa at the back end of last season but it’s nice to get fresh faces, fresh ideas. The overall feeling within the group is excitement. We have had two warm-up games already and we’re ready now to go and play a Test match against Italy.
“A big thing for us is how close can we get as a group, how well can we get to understand each other and know what makes each other tick, what gets each other ready for games, how we best receive feedback. That is the best way to get everything out of a team at the end of the day.
“You are going to play your game but it is a team game. Rugby is 15 guys on a pitch, not yourself, so it is how you can work with the guys around you is the thing you have got to work on more importantly.”
The final word goes to the curiosity that Carnduff is the only player from Leicester named in the England match day 23. Tigers used always be well represented but they are currently in the shade compared to Newcastle, Northampton and Harlequins who each have four players named in Mapletoft’s squad for the round one game in Italy.
“It just shows you the strength of all the academies across England,” reckoned Carnduff. “The boys from Leicester that haven’t made the squad, it just shows you the improvement in academies around the country, they’re getting better and they’re producing players of such high calibre.
“Maybe it’s not a reflection on Leicester but a reflection on the other clubs and how well they are doing. It’s exciting that we can pick players from various clubs (all 10 have representation along with Racing 92). Hopefully, the Premiership in a few years will be an exciting thing with a lot of exciting new players.”
