Proudfoot pledges to help make Sinckler ‘the best in the world’
New forwards coach tells Daniel Schofield how Jones won him over after South Africa’s glory
Just a few days after last year’s World Cup final, Matt Proudfoot, forwards coach of the victorious South Africa team, was relaxing at home when his phone rang. On the line was Eddie Jones, the England head coach. After pleasantries were exchanged, Jones asked Proudfoot’s immediate plans. Proudfoot had nothing set in stone, so they agreed to have lunch when he visited England the following week. By the time the dessert menus arrived, England had a new forwards coach.
“It was an unbelievable conversation about where rugby was going,” Proudfoot says. “Then he said to me, ‘Would you be interested in it?’ I asked him about his philosophy on the game and how he would see me fitting into that, really liked what he had to say and the role he wanted me to perform. He wants to be the best team the world has ever seen – that is enough. When the boss says that, you are either in or out. I want to be a part of that. We shook hands. I got home to my wife and said ‘we’re moving’.”
Which is how the architect of England’s World Cup final defeat and former Scotland prop is now sporting a red-rose tracksuit. Nearly every facet of South Africa’s 32-12 victory stemmed from a scrum so dominant that England’s pack appeared to be wearing roller skates.
Proudfoot is at pains to be as complimentary as possible towards England’s vanquished forwards.
“The intelligence of the players, the adaptability of the players and the style of rugby they play,” he says. “If you look at the global game, England is probably the most balanced side in world rugby.”
He describes preparing to face England as the “toughest coaching weeks” of his life, facing an “unbelievable pack of forwards”. He even says that the squad have displayed more “intelligent banter” than he is used to within playing groups.
For all the sugar-coating, there is still no mistaking that Proudfoot’s strategy was to pulverise England up front.
“To shut England out, to take the game away from them, because if you hand England the game they would rip you to pieces,” Proudfoot says. “Take a fundamental of the game away. Take their momentum away. The scrum is the start of it all, the scrum is the start of where all forward momentum occurs. “It is the one element where you have all the pack together. We understood that as a Springbok team growing up, the importance of the scrum. Your scrum is like a swim in triathlon. You can never win a triathlon if you can’t swim. You can never win a rugby game if your scrum is going backwards.” Of course, everything might have turned out differently had England tighthead prop Kyle Sinckler not been knocked unconscious after just three minutes. Sinckler’s replacement, Dan Cole, was subsequently fed to the “Beast”, Tendai Mtawarira. When he first arrived at England’s training base at Pennyhill Park in Surrey, Proudfoot ended up parking next to Sinckler. “So, someone was telling me something,” Proudfoot says. “I got out and had a long chat with him, he gave me a big hug, so that was really positive.
“I still feel for him. He’d had such a good tournament that he probably could have been world player of the year from a tighthead perspective, that’s how great his tournament is, so it had to have a negative effect on the team psyche.”
Returning Sinckler to the top of the tighthead tree has now become Proudfoot’s pet project. “I want him to tell me what he needs from me to make him the best in the world. How can I make him the best in the world? What does he need from me? Does he need a kick up the butt? What does he need every day? I’m not going to stop until he’s the best in the world.”
Not everyone was as delighted to see Proudfoot arrive. Loosehead prop Joe Marler admits that he gave Proudfoot, all 22st of him, some “grief ” after the final whistle in Yokohama. “Then when he was announced I thought, I hope he doesn’t remember me giving him some lip,” Marler says. “And he was like, ‘I remember you giving me some lip, eh’. And I was like, ‘Oh God, great to meet you – I’m off again’.”