As a contrast to England’s repeated failure to find a successor at openside flanker to Neil Back one has only to look at how New Zealand coped with Richie McCaw’s retirement. McCaw called it a day after the 2015 World Cup with 148 caps but there, ready to take up the mantle, was Sam Cane with more than 30 himself.
The thing with opensides such as that is there has to be a leader of the pack to encourage others to follow. For New Zealand it was McCaw, for Australia it is now Michael Hooper but England have not had one since Back and as a result young flankers coming through do not mould their game in that way. Yes, Sam Underhill was at Gloucester’s academy but is it any surprise that he is the closest thing England have and a key part of his development was spent in Wales where specialist opensides are far more prevalent?
Continue reading...from The Guardian http://ift.tt/2HMlVWt
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