Reuters
[Source: Reuters]
Most people probably knew what he meant when England assistant coach Kevin Sinfield said “everyone wants the best players to go head to head” but it was an unfortunate slip amid his defence of his team’s questionable tackling technique.
Tom Curry’s red card after an upright head-on-head collision in the third minute of Saturday’s 27-10 World Cup victory over Argentina earned him a two-game suspension and followed bans on Owen Farrell and Billy Vunipola for dangerous tackles.
Curry and Farrell will not be available for Sunday’s match against Japan but Sinfield, England’s defence coach, said everyone was working hard to eliminate head contact.
Sinfield pointed out that England gave away only seven penalties on Saturday and said they don’t have a discipline problem.
One problem they do have, however, is scoring tries. They did not get remotely close to the Argentina line, though they will argue they had no need to such was their dominance in the middle of the park which enabled George Ford to kick six penalties and three drop goals.
A World Rugby statistical review after the first weekend of games noted that England made one line break – the lowest of any team playing – two offloads and 76 passes – both figures also among the lowest.
With the greasy ball, their one-man disadvantage and their control of the contact area, those figures are not a huge surprise as England quickly worked out what was working.
More surprising is that they missed 23 tackles, though the match did not feel like they were being run through, as it did when they missed 27 in the final warm-up defeat by Fiji.
Sinfield was unconcerned.
England name their team to play Japan soon.
Stream the best of Fiji on VITI+. Anytime. Anywhere.
