Northern Edition
Select Edition
Northern Northern
Southern Southern
Global Global
New Zealand New Zealand
France France

'Pardon my French': Elliot Daly needs expletive to explain England's approach to France

By PA
Elliot Daly and Maro Itoje - PA

Elliot Daly insists England can continue their push for the Guinness Six Nations title emboldened by a victory over France that rewarded their refusal to be beaten.

ADVERTISEMENT

Daly’s final-minute try, combined with Fin Smith’s conversion, sealed a dramatic 26-25 triumph at Allianz Stadium that has given England lift-off after they opened the tournament with defeat in Dublin.

Head coach Steve Borthwick had urged his players to keep aiming to score tries when the pressure is on and they responded with Fin Baxter and Daly going over in a final 10 minutes that saw the lead change hands three times.

Video Spacer

LOMU: The Lost Tapes – trailer | RPTV

Video Spacer

LOMU: The Lost Tapes – trailer | RPTV

Featuring never-before-seen footage, Jonah Lomu shares his story and how he escaped gang violence to become the planet’s most iconic rugby player. Watch now on RugbyPass TV

England have been unable to close out winning positions for most of the last year, losing seven successive matches against top-tier opposition in the process.

Daly believes that getting over the line against France serves as validation of who they are as a team.

Attack

118
Passes
150
96
Ball Carries
134
247m
Post Contact Metres
258m
8
Line Breaks
9

“You want to go and win every single game and obviously we have been on the wrong side of results in the last couple of games. Now we know we are a good team,” Daly said.

“We knew we were a good team before but you need to win those big games to prove you are a good team.

ADVERTISEMENT

“Sometimes you have to go through those games where you don’t get the rub of the green. You have games of rugby like that, especially at Test level.

“Against France, whatever happened, it was like – pardon my French – ‘f*** that, on to the next thing’.

“That mindset we showed will put us in great stead, especially in the last 20 minutes when we were chasing it and scored, and then chased it again. It allowed us to be free and brave with the ball.

“But there are still things to work on, which is brilliant. If you have the perfect game it’s very hard to go to next week and say, ‘we’ll just do the same thing again’ as there’s no real focal point for it.

ADVERTISEMENT

“There are still things we can tidy up, so we’ll go after them, hopefully get better in those aspects and get a better result.”

Elliot Daly
Elliot Daly celebrates his try – PA

England will take another stride towards featuring in the title mix come the final weekend if they dispatch Scotland at Twickenham in round three with fixtures against Italy and Wales closing out their Six Nations.

Recent history points against a home win given Scotland have won the last four meetings and Daly knows a tough afternoon awaits.

“You’ve got to win your home games in this tournament and we’ve got two more at home in this competition – that will put us in good stead,” Daly said.

“We haven’t beaten Scotland in the past four times, so we want to make sure we’re ready for them coming down here and try to get a result.

“They’re a good team. Every time we’ve played them recently they’ve caused us a few issues. We know they’re a very well drilled team under (head coach) Gregor Townsend.

“And the way Finn Russell puts people around the park is different to other 10s you play against. You’ve got to be constantly on and it’s a game we’re looking forward to.”

Download the RugbyPass app now!

News, stats, live rugby and more! Download the new RugbyPass app on the App Store (iOS) and Google Play (Android) now!

ADVERTISEMENT

England v South Africa | World Rugby U20 Championship | Extended Highlights

Georgia vs Ireland | Men’s International | Full Match Replay

Lions Share | Episode 2

Chile vs Romania | Men’s International | Full Match Replay

USA vs Belgium | Men’s International | Full Match Replay

KOKO Show | July 1st | The Lions are here and the KOKO crew are getting excited

Touchdown in Dublin, The Red Sea Returns & We Prepare to Face Argentina | Ep 2: The Ultimate Test

South Africa v British & Irish Lions | 2009 | Second Test | The Vaults

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

A
AllyOz 3 hours ago
Has Quade Cooper solved a Lions riddle for Australia?

I also think that the lack of layers in the Australian system and the short season length also contributes to our lack of player development. All of the “three amigos” were in the Australian side from a very early age. We have Super Rugby but it is only 15 weeks long now (if you don’t make the finals - which our sides don’t typically do). And we only have 4 - 5 teams so, for 10s, there is only 1 or 2 spots up for grabs and one player is going to get most of the time. I imagine, in Europe where you have a longer season and then European Championship and then, in France, also a professional division below, a player of ability will get more than 15 games at the top level. There are tiers to progress through etc. The current 10 for France, on the All Blacks tour, has had 120 Top 14 games - we are putting blokes into a Wallabies squad after one or two good seasons (30 SR games at the most) and for others, like Sua’ali’i even sooner (but he did play at a high level in another code so he has had some time to develop).


We lack a tier or level, where players can develop that other comps have so that (1) they don’t need to be thrown in early (2) if they take a bit longer to develop there is a place for them to do it. You either have a place in one of the 4 (previously 5) sides or you go overseas, or you play at an amateur level. And also, you don’t have to push an older player out because, if you reach 24 or 25 and you haven’t made the Wallabies (or you aren’t a regular) then the prospect of playing OS is too financially enticing.

109 Go to comments
A
AllyOz 3 hours ago
Has Quade Cooper solved a Lions riddle for Australia?

Quade has a lot of very supportive fans, and also, in Australia (and definitely in NZ), there are those that do not like him as a player. I do think his coaches were responsible for him not getting a run when he was at his peak, Cheika didn’t appear to be a fan, giving him only one pool game in the World Cup (or very few chances anyway) but I think Quade also must have had issues in fitting in with coaches (or certain types of coaches). I also think there was a long period of his career where he played injured and was off his best. And he sat out a full season of SR to play club rugby rather than leave Queensland, when he fell out of favour with Thorn. He didn’t seem to settle in at Toulon, or the Melbourne Rebels really either and then he went to Kintetsu where he was in a team that was either bottom of the top grade or top of the next grade down, where, I imagine, it is difficult to get a feel of a players value to the national team. There are two (or more) sides to everyone of those stories.


I was in the group that probably was never a fan. I can’t really say why. When I look back on his highlight reel, there were moments of sheer brilliance and he took the Reds to a Championship win against the Crusader. But I guess I always viewed him as high risk and I am not sure that, prior to 2021, we ever saw his best. We had Foley as a long term 10 under Cheika, and also Matt Toomua and Christian Leilafano. Quade Cooper was easily the most skilful of any of those, but whether or not his own judgement or his ability/willingness to follow the coaches/teams plan was ever at the level of some of those other players, I am not sure. In some way I see him as a Finn Russell type, who doesn’t always appear to get along with some coaches but I am not sure it is always the coaches fault. I think Quade had the confidence that, if he thought he was right he would not be deterred from following that and I imagine some coaches (and not just bad ones) struggle with that if they are seeing different pictures from where they are watching.


I think he makes some good points. I really don’t understand the reluctance to pick James O’Connor and I think he makes a good point about changing coaches. I agree that there is a sameness to each of the 10s we have at the moment.


However, if we are talking about the last decade, we did have Michael Cheika as the coach from late 2014 to 2019 - so that is half the decade. Since then we have had 3 coaches in 6 years.


I do understand the charge about having lost our playing identity and I think he is right that we have perhaps fallen for the trick of trying to jump on the latest trend or copying what has been successful elsewhere and hoping that it works for us. But I am not sure how he personally would go as a coach. I see a bit of a similarity to Gregor Townsend personality wise but that is just a guess - Gregor has done OK.


I hope Quade doesn’t become the David Campese of his generation and getting involved in coaching might be a way to avoid that. It is interesting that he has written these articles in the Australian as they have been a bit anti-Rugby in Australia after they missed out on the broadcast rights.

109 Go to comments
LONG READ
LONG READ Ben Kay: 'The return of Owen Farrell will ruffle feathers, but not amongst the players. He drives standards.' Ben Kay: 'The return of Owen Farrell will ruffle feathers, but not amongst the players. He drives standards.'
Search