More than qualification on the line as England u20s take on South Africa
By Tom Jeffreys
England u20s head coach Mark Mapletoft and captain Finn Carnduff “haven’t spoken about the permutations” ahead of their final pool stage match of the u20s World Championship against South Africa, as the two prepare for an all-out arm wrestle against the hosts this afternoon at 18.00.
England need just one point from the game to secure a semi-final, whilst South Africa, having suffered a shock 31-12 loss to Argentina last week, are five points adrift and needing a bonus point win that restricts England from picking up a bonus to stand any chance of qualifying.
However, skipper Carnduff says the technicalities aren’t factoring into England’s preparation given the strength of tonight’s opponents.
“It’s a good that it’s in our hands. I don’t think it changes our mentality at all though. If you think about how we only need one point to go through to the next round, I don’t think that’s the right mentality to into such a big game against a very strong, talented South Africa team.
“We’re in a good position,” he continued. “But we’re not letting it cloud our judgement in how important the game is. We’re going to go tomorrow and get what we want out the game which is a five point win. As soon as we go away from what we want and think about others, that will only have a negative effect.”
His head coach Mapletoft echoes the sentiment, with a 40-21 win over Argentina in the first round and a 48-11 victory over Fiji in the second yet to fully satisfy him.
“We didn’t get 80 minute performances in either game,” said Mapletoft. “So that’s something to strive for. I wholeheartedly agree with Finn, if your mindset is ‘we’re just going to eek the points out of this’, that’s a really poor mindset.
“I’m pretty sure SA will love nothing more than getting one over us and turning that form around. Ultimately, if it really goes their way, they’ll end up qualifying, so there’s a huge amount to play for. To reiterate what Finn said, our mentality is one where we want to put in our best possible performance and win”.
Mapletoft’s alteration of the matchday 23 reflects as much, as England return to what can be perceived as their strongest lineup as the likes of Asher Opoku-Fordjour, Junior Kpoku, Henry Pollock and Jack Bracken return to the starting lineup.
Seven changes are made to the starting pack, Carnduff being the sole survivor, as England prepare to take on the reputable South African set piece that will be out for vengeance following an underwhelming performance in last week’s defeat.
“It was probably [an off night],” said Mapletoft. “Certainly knowing South Africa as we do across all ages, they pride themselves on the scrum and lineout.
“We fully expect that if we want to put in a performance ourselves, we have to try and emulate what Argentina did, but that won’t be that easy.
The South African desire for set piece retribution will no doubt be accentuated by the home advantage, but a partisan crowd has factored into England’s preparation for the tournament.
“It’s unique coming to South Africa,” said Mapletoft. “You’re drawn in a pool with the hosts so straight away the biggest crowd are going to be when South Africa are playing.
“In the Six Nations we went to Italy, to Scotland, and ultimately ended up in France with 16,000 people, of which 15,950 were against us. We’ve been to Georgia too, there’s always good learning win, lose, or draw.
“We lost to South Africa in the third place playoff last year, with a slightly different group of players so we know we need to be better than that.”
One of those different players was one Chandler Cunningham-South, whose break into a senior starting spot is a source of inspiration for Mapletoft’s current batch:
“To see players like CCS being in this environment last year, clearly having a huge number of strengths, but also one or two things he needed to work on. To see him go away and work on those things, then see him burst onto the international scene, it shows our players that they’re not a million miles away from things.”
It was when Mapletoft was discussing their long term preparation that the sense that this really means something more to this crop of England u20s became evident.
Mapletoft is overseeing his second u20s World Championship, and coached the u18s before this, so the tournament represents the end of a four year journey with the same group, and a chance to go out on the ultimate high. Every game must therefore be treated as the last of an era.
“It’s advantageous for me personally having known some of these lads for 3.5-4 years”, said Mapletoft.
“We spend an awful lot of time together, which has allowed us to create some great off field bonds and messages, which probably can in some instances cover for the actual training time that you have together.
“You’ve got to think outside the box, think of different ways to create the bonds between the players. Sometimes work rate on and off the ball can compensate for a huge number of technical or tactical deficiencies if you’re willing to work hard for each other.
“I’m not just saying this because Finn’s sat next to me but you couldn’t ask for a better group to try and work with.”
“Ultimately, playing rugby together builds friendships and bonds”, said Carnduff. “I think it definitely brings you closer, it’s human to say at times you will struggle whether that’s tiredness, missing home, generally struggling, so definitely competitions that are this intense bring you together.”
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