Samson hasn’t shut up about ‘tip-on’ – Evans
IT’S been a hot topic in the Wales team room at the Vale of Glamorgan this week, writes Rob Lloyd.
Not Gareth Davies’ lung-bursting interception, Steff Evans’ glorious finish or Leigh Halfpenny’s try double; no, rather an expert ‘tipon’ from none other than prop Samson Lee.
With 30 minutes on the clock and Wales producing some sublime rugby, the Scarlets tight-head flicked a fizzing miss-pass from Rhys Patchell into the hands of Ross Moriarty, prompting former Wales flanker Martyn Williams to enthuse on commentary: “Samson Lee is a Fijian, brilliant pass!”
“He hasn’t shut up about it,” joked front-row colleague Rob Evans as attention turns away from that 34-7 thumping of Scotland towards a mouth-watering showdown with the old enemy at Twickenham on Saturday.
“Every time I see him in the team room he’s practising that.
“Everyone was saying he went to catch the ball and missed it, but he’s claiming it was a tip-on.”
It was a moment that summed up the brave new world under Warren Gatland, tight forwards looking to keep the ball alive, away from contact.
Lee has long been considered an old-school tight-head, a player who loves nothing more than a setpiece tussle.
But anyone who has watched his influence on the Scarlets over the last couple of seasons would know that is doing the 25-year-old a disservice these days.
“To be fair to him, he’s been working hard on his skills and it was good to see him doing that on Saturday,” added Evans, not averse to the odd bit of handling magic himself.
“We tried to evolve our game in the autumn and I think we’ve seen glimpses of that.
“It takes time to change things, but we’ve been working hard on that in training with drills and stuff.
“It was nice to see a few handling opportunities come off.”
Evans is now firmly established as Wales’ first-choice loose-head having started in the No.1 jersey against Australia, New Zealand and South Africa in the autumn.
That campaign saw Wales take the unprecedented step of taking part in a Monday morning training session against their English counterparts at Bristol’s Filton College.
It may have been some way shy of the ‘Battle of Bristol’ hyped up in the media, but after naming an unchanged starting XV on Tuesday, Gatland insisted his pack had got plenty out of it – a sentiment echoed by Evans.
“It was a good session. It was a fair few scrums, 12, something like that and a few lineouts in there as well,” recalled the Pembrokeshire man.
“We were pretty happy with how it went. I think they wanted to do it this week, but weren’t allowed or something!”
“But we haven’t really talked about that, it was back in the autumn and things change.”
Although Wales didn’t get their expected dominance over the injury-hit Scottish front row in Cardiff, it was a still a positive performance from the home eight under the Principality Stadium roof.
“Obviously, we have had a look at England, but we have focused on ourselves and getting our own ship in order, as we do every week,” added Evans.
“There was a lot of talk about the scrum in the press before the Scotland game and we were pretty happy with the way we came out of it.
“This Saturday is a big test for us, but we spoke this morning, it is a test we are really looking forward to.”
In the wake of England’s comfortable victory over Italy in Rome on Sunday, head coach Eddie Jones suggested Dan Cole – a Lions tourist in 2013 and 2017 – was on the way to becoming the best tight-head prop in world rugby.
“I think Dan Cole by the end of the Six Nations will be the premier tight-head in Europe,” said Jones.
“His body’s changed and his scrum position is improving all the time and he’s at a great age – prime age at 31, 32 – to be the best tighthead in the world.”
So what does his opponent on Saturday make of those comments, will it gets the fires burning?
“Not really,” was Evans’s matterof-fact response.
“I am just looking forward to Saturday. I have played against him a few times now, I am sure he (Eddie Jones) is saying that, but I reckon Samson Lee is one of the best in the world.”
And what of the English scrum, with Jones declaring that England’s scrummaging performance against Italy was their best in his two years at the helm?
“England always have a good pack. They have such strength in depth, you are never going to play against a poor England pack,” added Evans.
“I don’t think we are too bad either. I am sure it will be a good test, but we are not scared or anything, we are really looking forward to it.
“It’s Wales versus England and I know there’s a lot of hype there, but we are really happy with the result last week, so there’s a good vibe in the squad.
“Obviously, that helps after a good win, but we aren’t afraid of anything.”