'English reviewers; the way they referee the Premier League, the speed of the ball is high and they want the ball to escape that break,” he said. Steve Borthwick said: Photo: PA/Zach Goodwin
Steve Borthwick has warned England players to be wary of referees' interpretations at scrum and bust Tests in the upcoming Six Nations match.
The head coach of the England national team believes. Premier League umpires are more adept than their Test counterparts at keeping rugby rackets and scrums clean and tidy. In October, Telegraph Sport revealed how England were highlighting interpretations of breakdowns at the Rugby World Cup.
“In international rugby the nature of a breakdown is assessed differently and in international rugby the nature of a scrum is assessed differently,” Borthwick said. “It is important that teams have the opportunity to compete for penalties, but we see too many scrums that don't make it to competition. I like the scrum and I don't want it to take away from our game.
“Sometimes we take the competition out a little bit, wanting the ball to go in and out, and if it doesn't go to bed then we're playing on leaving and there will be no new fight. We know Test rugby is not like that. Test rugby, the scrum, is a competition, as we learned as we improved in the World Cup semi-final.
“Destruction is also a huge competition. The English umpires, from the way they officiate in the Premier League, have a high ball speed and they want the ball to escape that gap. In the Premier League the area around the ball is clear, otherwise there is a penalty.
“In Test rugby it's different. In Test rugby this area is not as clean and the back row becomes one of the most important notes I look at every session, every game, every tournament. When it comes to the breakdown, everyone is responsible, but the back row plays a key role.
“You see so many good back rows in the Six Nations and that means the breakdown is a real area of struggle. There is no competition in world rugby that has such a high turnover rate as the Six Nations.
Everything we have suggests that the competition is very tough on the breakdown. We also see that the level of defense is higher as you go up the levels, so fewer tackles are missed and it gets harder and harder.”
“If rugby needs space, we need fatigue. '
England begin their Six Nations campaign against Italy in Rome on Saturday, February 3, hoping to stem a league slump that has seen them win just 50 per cent of their matches over the past five years. Borthwick's 36-man squad will gather at their training base at Pennyhill Park this Tuesday before flying to Girona for a warm-weather training camp, and Borthwick is hoping the increased competitiveness of the Premier League will stand him in good stead in improving his fitness levels. test rugby.
With ever-improving standards of defense at Test level, Borthwick also supported calls for a reassessment of the number of substitutions allowed in a match, believing that fewer substitutions could lead to more fatigue and therefore more space.
“ What we're seeing now, the name of the game is that there's less space, and if we're going to create space, we need to have some level of fatigue that we're doing it, and there are different areas that you can tweak.” added Borthwick.
“One area you can change is the number of substitutions because that will affect the fatigue that occurs in the game. Fatigue from the game affects the amount of space. That's one way to look at it if you want to free up some space.
“As players get better, you put eight subs on the field, which means there's [less] space. The players are better prepared at test level, so the second half doesn't have the same place it does in the Premier League because the players are more prepared.”
Recent Comments