By Paul Wilkinson and Tom Sansom
England A cheered up the Twickenham fans after yesterday’s defeat to South Africa, with a stunning win over Australia A at the Stoop. The stars of the future England senior squad lit up the home of the Harlequins in this exhibition Test, with the likes of Cadan Murley and Henry Pollock starring in this afternoon’s 38-17 win.
England A head coach and his captain Fraser Dingwall, spoke to the media after the match and broke down the action in the shadow of the Allianz Stadium. In what optimised the ambitions of the England A players, as they push towards senior camp involvements, Here are the five biggest talking points from this England pathway victory at the Twickenham Stoop.
1. England A head coach Mark Mapletoft’s immediate reactions to the win over Australia
MARK MAPLETOFT: “Slow first half, wasn’t it? Second half picked up, clearly half- time messages were bang on, which is clearly not the case. It’s funny actually Fraser and I were just chatting in the changing room there, one thing I’m really big on is players’ ability to reflect in-action of what’s happening.
“Often the three big moments are pre-game, the game and post-game. Whereas actually there are learning moments all the way through. Now I’m not saying that you change tac, or you do something different after 5 minutes, but sometimes 20 minutes in is a really good time for some of the senior players to come together and go ‘look, what are doing, what are we feeling? Where are we doing well, where are we not doing so well?’
“Of course it’s magnified that that’s tough with a group that might not know each other so well, probably know who each other are but haven’t had those minutes in battle. That was probably something that we could have looked at but ultimately, the reaction at half-time particularly to the breakdown, that was the main thing.
“That was where we were losing possession. It wasn’t that we didn’t know about it, that we didn’t know that Australia were going to go hard. We had watched them the week before pulverise Bristol at the breakdown and I think the referee was top URC penalties given against the attack. So, we knew it was coming. But then actually dealing with it is the ultimate action isn’t it. It took us probably 20 minutes too long to get a grip on that. When we did, outstanding and points flowed because we’ve got class players all across the pitch.’
2. Fraser Dingwall delighted to have the opportunity after left out of Borthwick’s plans
FRASER DINGWALL: “If anything, I’m fortunate because I’ve one of the ones who hasn’t necessarily missed out on something, and then be chucked into something else. This week was quite nice for me for two reasons. To give myself a run out after a bit of my knee knock, which has kind of like scuppered a lot of my Autumn chances. But then, as I said, I do think it’s just quite an exciting opportunity.
“And as Tofty 9Mark Mapletoft) was talking about with the ‘A’ system not being in place earlier, I think I’m probably an example of someone who could have benefited from that in previous years. I think, from sitting in squads where I was in and around playing for a long time, but not quite getting an opportunity. I think I’m probably one of those players that in previous years could have benefited from something like this.
“So I can’t see why it is a great thing to keep involved and moving forward, for the rest of season.”
3. Praise for Henry Pollock with Mapletoft and Dingwall impressed by the Saints man
FRASER DINGWALL: “I think we’re all getting a bit sick of him winning all of these man of the match awards a bit to be honest! I think, he’s obviously a cracking player. I think he’d be the first as well to say he’s got so much to grow in his game as well.
“And I think it’s really important that people are kind of are realistic with him around that .I think he’s obviously got so much athleticism about him, he’s got such work rate, he’s got such fight about him, which are like pillars that can build someone into an unbelievable player. And he’s very much a good player at the moment. I’m sure he’s going to really kick on, and he’s just making sure he tracks on that path.”
MARK MAPLETOFT: “Yeah, probably like Fraser, I’ve known Henry for a long time. He’s just, he’s just a highlight player. He’s got those pillars that Fraser talked about in terms of his physicality and work great. I think the thing impressed me most wasn’t necessarily all the Man of the Match bits that Henry’s picked up over the last 12 months.
“He probably by his own ambition, he didn’t have a great game last year against Scotland away. Probably, maybe just let the occasion get to him and but what he then did was just recalibrated and went again. That’s a rare skill in a young player. He’d only just turned 19 at that point, and I think that ability to just, be on an upward curve and suddenly, the legs chopped from underneath him, and all players, we’ve all been through that.
“We’ve all been through periods where everybody’s on the up, and then suddenly back (down). It’s like, ‘I, didn’t expect that’. And then how he responded to that, I think, is, is, you know, it’s a sign of someone who you know Can, can keep progressing, and he gets the brakes at the right time. Who knows in the future could see him wearing a senior English shirt?”
4. Steve Borthwick wanted Fraser Dingwall to captain England A as he pushes for seniors
MARK MAPLETOFT: “It’s way outside of my pay grade to work out why, it (England A) wasn’t in place in the first place. I don’t think it’s really been up and running properly since 2016, which is way too long. I think combined with them (England senior), we’ve got a lot of pathway staff now amd have been working for the last four years together, which is an awful lot of alignment.
“We’ve had some great collaboration with Steve and the senior staff around who we wanted playing, I’m not just saying this because Fraser’s here, but Fraser has had a great year. Playing in the Six Nations for your country winning the Premiership, with Northampton coming into this space, and Steve was really keen on Fraser getting back and being picked and leading the side as well.
“So, you know, for me, that shows that there’s deliberate practice around, how are we going to utilize this opportunity to say, all the young players coming out the U20s or still in the U20s, it’s clear around to those lads he wanted.”
5. “This is a big step up” – Mapletoft impressed by his U20s stars on the England A stage
MARK MAPLETOFT: First and foremost, we need to expose the players at the right time. There are plenty of very good young England under 20 players aren’t here, but it’s not the appropriate thing for them. This is a big step up.
Then it’s another step up (to seniors) to look at the physicality yesterday (England v South Africa) through the roof. So we’ve got a real balancing act to make sure that we expose the right players at the right time, and often, their form for their clubs will go a long way to determine whether they get those opportunities.
“I don’t think it should be any other way. As I said. Now we’ve got these (England A) games, you know, we can kind of test them out without the pressure of a club.”
