‘We believe in the plan’: England vow to double down on kick-heavy style against France
England have vowed to double down on their kick-heavy gameplan against France on Saturday despite their drastic decline in recent weeks.It is a move that risks further provoking the anger of their supporters.Steve Borthwick and his side have come under intense scrutiny after last week’s first defeat by Italy and the manner in which they stuck rigidly to their kicking strategy left fans irate.England have kicked the most times and for the most metres of all the Six Nations teams and while it was a tactic that paid dividends last autumn when they were on a 12-match winning run, it is no longer having the desired effect.The 2003 World Cup winner Matt Dawson has warned that relying too heavily on their kicking game in Paris would be a “red flag against England’s coaching ticket”.
The Rugby Football Union was compelled to give Borthwick a qualified vote of confidence on Sunday.In his BBC Sport column, Dawson said: “England are never in a million years going to Paris and beating France by deploying the same kick-heavy strategy.If they do, that is a red flag against England’s coaching ticket.It may have worked during the 12-game winning run, but Scotland showed you need more than 40 points to beat France – and that was in Edinburgh.”But the scrum-half Ben Spencer, who was brought into the side against Italy for his box-kicking prowess, has revealed the gameplan is unlikely to change, suggesting England did not kick as much as they should have in the losses to Scotland and Ireland.
“Our plan has stayed the same or we haven’t changed our plan too much game to game,We’ve seen results from it so I don’t think we need to change too much,” he said,“We all believe in the plan,We haven’t gone too far away from what we did when we had 12 wins on the spin,“There are loads of ways you can go about it, but if you look at the two defeats we had previous to Italy, both Ireland and Scotland kicked more than us.
It is just how you go about it, how you implement it, it is your accuracy.There are loads of things that can influence that.“Whether it’s kick to compete, kick to score, kick to turn teams, I think we got a lot back in the air at the weekend.Our wingers were brilliant at that and that got us an in for the game and for 60-65 minutes the game was there to be won.A couple of things in the last 20 minutes let us down, but it wasn’t our kicking game that [cost us].
“As players, we’re fully aligned with the coaches in terms of the way we want to move forward and where we want to go with the gameplan.And then on Saturday night, it’s up to us to implement that gameplan and execute it as best as we can.”Borthwick is expected to make minimal changes to the side, but Tom Curry has been ruled out with the calf injury he sustained in the warm-up on Saturday.Tommy Freeman is likely to remain at centre with neither Ollie Lawrence and Henry Slade travelling to England’s training camp in Verona with Tom Roebuck sticking on the wing.Roebuck said: [The kicking contest] can be seen as quite random, but there is a skill to it still.
We speak about being able to win the middle and the air, getting your body in the contest, not going in half hearted.Yes, it is random, but if we can put a skill to it and make sure we’re better than other teams it can go our way.“When we’re on our best we can go and beat teams.We just want to make sure we stick to it, bring the best version to it, rather than, like we haven’t been recently, bringing a bit less of it.”
The Guide #233: From Wonder Man to Girl Taken, here’s one thing to watch on every streamer
Streaming services: there’s a lot of them (with yet another, HBO Max, on the way later this month) and everyone seems to be signed up to different ones, making recommendations a challenge. Step forward the Guide’s fourth edition of A Show for Every Streamer (previous versions can be seen here, here and here), which does exactly as it describes. As is tradition, we’ve tried to avoid series that everyone has been nattering about (unlucky, Heated Rivalry), and instead spotlight less heralded, more surprising picks, starting with …Apple TV | Drops of God … a Japanese-American-French drama about warring wine experts, of course. A curious one, though it does fit in with Apple’s penchant for high-end subject matter. After a first series that saw the daughter of a deceased French wine expert face off against his Japanese mentee for ownership of his multimillion-dollar wine collection, season two – which arrived in January – sees the two team up to investigate the mysterious origins of a bottle of red from dad’s collection
My cultural awakening: a Rihanna song showed me how to live as a gay man in Iran
My sexuality had to be hidden from my friends, my parents, not to mention the authorities. Then I found freedom at house parties and one song that sums up me finally being able to be myselfI was raised in Tehran, under the Ayatollah’s sharia law and daily watch of Basij – the “morality police”. My parents fell in love with the Islamic Revolution when I was a baby and welcomed life under its strict religious rules. The Ayatollah’s face stared down from the walls at home, a daily reminder of what was expected and what was forbidden. This included being gay, but by my teenage years I knew I was different from my peers, and began hiding my sexuality from my parents and the world outside
From The Bride! to Harry Styles: your complete entertainment guide to the week ahead
Maggie Gyllenhaal gives us a new take on The Bride of Frankenstein, and the stadium-conquering pop prince is back with a new albumThe Bride!Out now Maggie Gyllenhaal directs this Chicago-set gothic romance starring Jessie Buckley and Christian Bale. Per James Whale’s 1935 classic Bride of Frankenstein, on which it is loosely based, a lonely monster wants a mate and taps up a scientist, Dr Euphronious (Annette Bening), to create her.Peaky Blinders: The Immortal ManOut now As The Rachel was to women who watched Friends in the 90s, so the Peaky Blinders mop chop was to male fans. Will the return of the Birmingham gang drama in feature film form prompt another wave of ill-advised dos? Only time will tell. Just remember, Cillian Murphy looking amazing with that haircut doesn’t mean it’s a good idea for absolutely everyone
Stephen Colbert on Kristi Noem: ‘A domestic terrorist who deserves to go to Gitmo’
On Thursday night, late night-hosts celebrated Kristi Noem’s firing, criticized Maga’s handling of the war in Iran and raised an eyebrow to Robert F Kennedy Jr taking issue with sugary Starbucks drinks.Stephen Colbert immediately brought up Kristi Noem’s firing in his monologue, saying that the former homeland secretary brought it on herself by “standing too close to that gravel pit”.The host then turned serious. “Before we get any more information about what happened, I just want to say with absolute certainty: she is a domestic terrorist who deserves to go to Gitmo.”On Truth Social, Donald Trump announced that Noem would be moved to a new role as “special envoy for the Shield of the Americas, our new security initiative in the western hemisphere”
Stephen Colbert on Republican double-speak for war in Iran: ‘A war that got a thesaurus for Christmas’
Late-night hosts unpacked the Orwellian double-speak of congressional Republicans trying to justify the Trump administration’s military strikes in Iran.“Folks, I really didn’t want to start the monologue by talking about the war, but in honor of this administration, I went into this without a plan,” said Stephen Colbert on Wednesday, five days after the US military, in conjunction with Israel, bombed Iran and killed its supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.“I say ‘war’,” he continued, “because it sure looks like a war, and Trump keeps calling it a war, but Congress never declared it a war, and Maga was promised no new wars, so the White House sent out a list of talking points to all the congressional Republicans telling them in no uncertain terms that if a reporter asked ‘Can you promise the American people this will not be a long-drawn out war?’, the answer to give is ‘These are targeted, major combat operations.’”“So … it’s worse than a war,” said Colbert. “It’s a war that got a thesaurus for Christmas
Nothing beats the smell of oil and steam | Brief letters
Re your article (T rex breath and Queen Elizabeth’s car: scientists creating ‘time machine for the nose’, 28 February), one of the great attractions about working steam museums is the whole sensory experience, including the smell of hot oil and steam, which is often mentioned by visitors. Non-working steam engines are, by comparison, lifeless, however well they are polished.John Freeman Trustee, Claymills Victorian Pumping Station My tried and trusted method of getting back to sleep (Letters, 25 February) involves me making the mental journey from my home in Kent to Lewis, including stocking up with groceries in Stornoway. I’m looking forward to making the trip for real in November. Out the door, turn right, right again…Ralph JonesRochester, Kent My twin sister and I shared a bed from the early 1950s
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