England hooker Dylan Hartley said they have had a taste and now want more.
A weakened England side came close to upsetting World Cup holders, the New Zealand All Blacks, in Auckland last Saturday, only to lose the first Test 15-20 through a 78th-minute piece of individual brilliance.
It did not help the England cause that they butchered a number of opportunities through handling errors and poor choices.
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Hartley feels that if England are more clinical and stop squandering scoring opportunities, they have a real chance of beating the All Blacks in Dunedin this coming Saturday.
“We fronted up at set piece time and challenged the All Blacks, which was good,” the hooker said about last week’s Auckland outing.
“Defensively, we were very sound and attack-wise we were in good shape and made good line-breaks,” he added.
“I think it’s about being more clinical when we make these line-breaks and coming away with points.”
He said both teams were rusty in the first match of the three-Test series, and the tourists had to be prepared for New Zealand to lift a gear in Dunedin.
“We’ve got to be better and we’ve got to run with them for 80 minutes this weekend, knowing that the intensity is going to go up a notch,” he said.
Hartley played no part in the Auckland Test because he was among a group of players whose arrival in New Zealand was delayed by the Premiership final, with Rob Webber of Bath filling in for him and having an outstanding game.
Harley said he could understand if some of the so-called “second stringers” retained their spots over more fancied rivals in Dunedin as a reward for their tenacious performance in the opening Test.
“It’s a squad thing, it’s a team thing, there’s a bigger picture to all this,” he said. “I’m sure I’ll get an opportunity somewhere and, as ever, I’ll give it a good shot when I get a chance.”
@ superBul:
Super, I agree with what you have said HM must beat the Ab’s home and away and not just for one season, plenty on here will tell you if he wins the WC next year it won’t matter but we all know it does.
Groot thinks we have a weak tight 5 and obviously he is entitled to his opinion, I disagree though and so do the record books.
@ NZINCHINA:
How can one define a “weak tight 5”?
If you win more of your own scrums than you lose, and win more of your line out than you lose, but still lose a “percentage” does that make your tight 5 “weak”?
It must all be looked at in context.
If there are 20 scrums/lineouts in a game, and you lose 1 tighthead / lineout throw in those 20, it gives you a 95% success rate. Looks great on paper.
However, if that single scrum / lineout loss is on your own 5m line and leads to an opposition try that ultimately loses you the game, well then the 95% success rate counts for zip.
If that loss is in the “no mans land” of the field, a different matter altogether.
Likewise if it’s an attacking set piece on the oppositions 5m line, and your team loses their own ball, and ultimately the game then again the stat’s will show that you have a bloody good tight 5, but you lost the game.
Ultimately that’s why I don’t follow statistics on the sport field, unlike in my work where Statistical Process Analysis plays a massively important role, but in a totally different way.
A good example is the Lions scrum in Super Rugby. The most successful scrum statistically, has no players in the Springbok group.!
HM picked 2 uncapped Bulls from row players for his squad, completely ignoring the stats.
Did he err, or was he just more “comfortable” in his selctions?
In summation, IMHO stats are not the be all and end all of determining success in a sporting enviroment. As the saying goes, there are lies, damn lies, and then statistics.
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