Underhill ready to solve rucking shambles
SAM UNDERHILL reckons England are ready to rectify their rucking shambles against Scotland by rediscovering their breakdown bite for ‘Le Crunch’. The 21-year-old flanker watched on for 55 minutes at Murrayfield as Eddie Jones’s men saw their Grand Slam dreams die. They lost the ball nine times at rucks, with John Barclay, Hamish Watson and Stuart McInally in dominant form and highlighting England’s lack of a breakdown boss. Now knowing only a bonus-point win against France will keep England’s Six Nations title hopes alive, Underhill has called for a reaction. ‘It’ll be a test of character but we’ve all got faith,’ he said. ‘The only thing we can do from here is improve. I don’t think we’ve really got an option. We’ve made things more difficult for ourselves but we’ll take that head on. ‘You’re not going to go through life winning every game. You need the games where things don’t go so well to learn how to react and adapt. ‘Technically there are loads of points you can talk about but the bottom line is that we didn’t react to a situation that was apparent from pretty early on.’ Despite his inexperience, with only six caps, Underhill is one of England’s cooler customers. He added: ‘I think everyone’s a bit of a bad loser. If you don’t hate losing you’re not in the right environment if you’re playing international rugby. The first thing you want to do if you lose is put it right but for us it’s not about an emotional response. It’s a bit more calculated than that. It’s about deliberate, tactical, technical improvement in our game. Emotion is inconsistent and it’s unsustainable.’