FINISHERS OF ENGLAND ARE ‘NOT A NEW THING’

ENGLAND rebranding their replacements as ‘Finishers’ on the official team sheet is easily dismissed as a gimmick; in an age when fans have become customers and players are referred to as spokesmen, there is always some clever marketing bod ready with a silly idea. Yet Eddie Jones is deadly serious when he talks about using his bench to put opponents away. They trailed going into the final ten minutes at home to France in the Six Nations opener, ‘Finisher’ Ben Te’o marking his introduction with a try to win the match. The back-ups also swung the momentum for England to clinch a last-gasp victory over Wales in Cardiff on match day two. The ‘other guys’ definitely played their part in solving the Italian problem after the home sided trailed at half-time at Twickenham. Jones has created a real bond among the players he keeps in reserve for that final 20 minutes of every Test, introducing them en masse into training games and confronting them with scenarios — they’re two points down against 14 men, or have a penalty that’s right on the edge of the kicker’s range — to prepare them for their jobs. If it sounds overly close to an American football-style special teams unit for some purists, Scotland backs coach Jason O’Halloran is quick to point out that Jones is hardly reinventing rugby union. ‘I don’t think they’ve changed anything,’ said the Kiwi. ‘The All Blacks have always had a massive emphasis on the 23 men

in their squad — and have always been renowned as fast finishers. So I don’t think it’s a new thing at all. ‘Calling them finishers might be new — but the theory is an old one. We’ve got massive respect for what that group have done off the bench. They’ve led them to victory over Wales, deciding games that England looked on the brink of losing. ‘You’ve got to make a few assumptions on what the last 15-20 minutes is going to look like. Generally, there are fewer set-pieces and teams are looking to speed things up. So you want guys who can impact the tempo, whether you need to speed it up or slow it down. ‘Do you take the tactical approach, slow it down and close the game out, or do you try to inject pace? ‘All of the different scenarios influence how the replacements — sorry, finishers — impact on the game.’ Scotland head coach Vern Cotter has cited the work rate of England’s replacements as key, pointing to the Vunipola brothers as examples when he says: ‘They work twice as hard as anyone else, because they know they’re only going to be on the pitch for half as long. It works for them.’ What this strength in depth does is keep opponents on their toes, O’Halloran declaring: ‘No lead is a good lead against England. Which means our bench needs to come on and bring a massive amount of energy to the game. ‘It’s going to be a 23-man game tomorrow. But we need to be in a position to challenge in that last 15 minutes.’