England blast back at ‘boring’ jibes
Underdog John ready to stun big spenders
ENGLAND have rubbished claims from Argentina that they play boring rugby.
The Pumas’ ex-Worcester hooker Agustin Creevy said the English style is forwardobsessed and predictable.
But ahead of Saturday’s Pool C showdown England attack coach Scott Wisemantel claimed the criticism could be a ploy to try to tempt England into changing their approach.
JOHN DAVIES has spent this week fixing boats and heavy machinery on Yorkshire’s canals but today he flies to Toronto aiming to help Featherstone into Super League.
The promotion showdown in Canada on Saturday – still being billed the Million Pound Game even though Wolfpack won’t take any central funding if they go up – sums up the remarkable current landscape in rugby league. It pits big-spending new kids on the block Toronto against one of its most traditional names.
It’s a Canadian city with a population of 2.9million against a Yorkshire town of 15,000, and a squad including former NRL and Super League stars against one that is largely part-time.
But after nailing three successive away wins in the play-offs, Featherstone and Davies, who has spent all but seven matches of his decade-long career outside the top flight, continue to dream.
Davies said: “Everyone is looking at it as a mountain to climb and some would say that mountain is Everest.
“We hear that one of their players gets paid as much as our whole Wisemantel said: “I know we have good players and we can attack.
“We have multiple threats, so maybe it is a way for other people to pigeon hole us to try and do something.
“You must have a setpiece. Every team in this competition who is progressing or going well has one. But against the USA I thought there were some brilliant bits of open-field rugby, so there is that balance.
“He (Creevy) just might have been at a boring club, I don’t really know.
‘‘He obviously hasn’t been watching much of the Premiership, where there are some excellent teams with many different styles.”
Hooker Jamie George believes Creevy is trying to playing budget this season. That’s all well and good but it still boils down to this 80 minutes on Saturday.
“People can see from how we’ve performed in these play-offs that we believe something special is happening.
“Is it one of those underdog stories where we can go all the way?
“People can buy into that and I’ve had guys coming up to me in the gym wishing us all the best.”
Davies’ schedule this week offers an insight into the scale of the challenge facing Rovers who haven’t been in the top flight since 1995.
The players arrived home from Sunday’s rousing win in Toulouse on Monday night after a five-hour bus trip from Bristol – Davies was in work on Tuesday and Wednesday and training in the evenings.
Ryan Carr’s squad fly out to Canada today, where Wolfpack have been preparing for their shot at promotion redemption for two weeks, having unexpectedly missed out to London last year.
But Davies added: “It can be tough being a part-time player and there are some long days.
“But days like Saturday are why you make those sacrifices and my employers are very supportive.
“I don’t think anybody expected this game to be Toronto Wolfpack against Featherstone Rovers but we’ve bought into and believed what the boss wanted us to do.
“You can see from the results that it has paid dividends – now we need one last big effort.” use mind games as Argentina attempt to end a run of nine successive defeats against England.
George said: “I’m not surprised he’s said that but he’s entitled to his opinion and hopefully we’ll prove him wrong on Saturday.
“In my opinion I don’t think it’s very justified. I’m sure he’s just trying to rattle us a bit – he’s more than welcome to try.”