Youngsters were quick to take their chances
Ben Jaycock caught up with England U18s assistant and backs coach Will Parkin
ENGLAND U18s assistant and backs coach Will Parkin was taken aback by the quality of the current group that delivered on their attacking principles whilst on tour.
The 27-20 comeback victory over Georgia, who replaced France due to their player Medhi Narjissi going missing whilst swimming off a beach near Cape Town pre-tournament, was sandwiched between defeats to Ireland (42-28) and South Africa (39-17). While one win from three won’t excite supporters, it should be noted that South Africa’s and Ireland’s squads are both a school year above England at a crucial age in their development.
Parkin told The Rugby Paper: “Firstly, I need to pass on condolences to France and the loss of Medhi. It started the tournament on a very sad note but it was a great three weeks for our players to experience scenarios they haven’t before. The focus for us was to improve over the course of the three games rather than focusing on results.
“With Ireland and South Africa a school year above our boys, there was a clear challenge physicality wise putting them under different pressure than they would have faced before. 17, 18, 19 in rugby is when it starts to become a lot more serious compared to other sports that start a bit earlier.”
Former Northampton academy coach Parkin says his side learned some invaluable lessons in South Africa, most notably the importance of taking chances. He said: “Anyone in sport is competitive and wants to win, so the lads were gutted with the two defeats, especially the one to Ireland which could have gone either way.
“The conversations that JP (Jonathan Pendlebury) and I had post South Africa were around the lessons these boys will have learned from the importance of their skill-sets under pressure and work off the pitch to physically cope at this level but the part that they don’t experience at schoolboy or academy level is the game management side of it. That came to fruition against Georgia from where we were in the first half to where we were in the second. Against South Africa hopefully they would have learnt the importance of taking their opportunities, when the space is there how good are they are getting the ball to it? If they wait a phase or a second phase at this level against quality opposition, those opportunities quickly disappear.”
Parkin is proud of how his backs operated on tour with the groups’ fundamentals of speed, attachment and space personified no more than in Exeter Chiefs scrum-half George Newman’s snipe before twisting and turning over the line during Monday’s match against South Africa.
“George on and off the pitch is a fantastic human being, providing really good energy and is someone that contributed massively to team bonding,” said Parkin. “We went into that game without our replacement nine. The logistics of bringing a 17-year-old over to South Africa with a day’s notice isn’t possible. When you lose a player in a key position you keep your fingers crossed he can go the full 70 minutes. He did a fantastic job but is fairly new to the position as he’d played for his academy on the wing last year so for him to come in at nine and perform was really pleasing.”
Saracens winger Noah Caluori went viral across social media for his wonder score from his own 22m line versus Ireland. Parkin says the next step for club and country is finding ways to get the talented speedster on the ball more frequently.
He added: “A decent first touch for Noah! It’s something he and I have been working on a lot and I know Sarries have spent a lot of time around how many involvements he can get in a game. You can see what he can do on the ball but for him it’s now all about supporting his understanding to get the ball more himself.”
Playing at 13, Saracens’ Fraser Rawlings was player of the match in the victory over Georgia after scoring two well taken tries and Parkin feels his knowledge and understanding picked up from his previous year at U18s level was invaluable for the inexperienced group on tour.
He said: “Fraser had a great game against Georgia. He toured in the Six Nations last year, so was one of the more experienced players in terms of caps as only five had previously been capped before. To have Fraser was huge for the group and another who is exploring different positions.”
