‘Battle with England’s Kamikaze Kids key’
OITA, Japan, Oct 21, (RTRS): England should have a fully fit squad for Saturday’s World Cup semifinal against New Zealand with both Jonny May and Jack Nowell expected to recover from injury, assistant coach Neal Hatley has said.
Winger May scored two tries but injured his hamstring in England’s 40-16 quarter-final victory over Australia at the weekend, while Nowell missed the game against the Wallabies with a similar problem.
“It’s fantastic where we are, all 31 (players) being available for selection at the end of the week,” Hatley told reporters on Monday.
“Jonny’s bouncing around this morning. He has a small twinge and we’ll assess where he is a little bit later today. He’s in really good spirits, moving well, and we expect Jack to be fit for selection as well.” Hatley also said he was pleased by Mako Vunipola’s condition after the prop made his first start since May against Australia on Saturday.
“Unbelievably impressed,” the coach added. “He continues to go from strength to strength. We’ve talked before about this team of 31 and everyone’s doing their part but Mako, when he plays well, like he did, is a real force.
“I think Mako surprises everybody – well other people are surprised outside of the squad... He’s got himself in the best condition, as have all the other boys, that he’s ever been in.” All Blacks flanker Sam Cane is relishing facing up to England’s “pretty impressive” Tom Curry and Sam Underhill in their World Cup semifinal on Saturday, with the battle at the breakdown key to advancing to the final.
Curry and Underhill, who England coach Eddie Jones has dubbed “The Kamikaze Kids”, have been standouts in England’s strong forward pack at the World Cup.
They got the better of Michael Hooper and the world class David Pocock in their quarter-final in Oita on Saturday to advance to the semifinals for the first time in 12 years and face the All Blacks in Yokohama.
“Underhill and Curry have been pretty impressive,” Cane told reporters in Tokyo on Monday. “They’ve both got a huge appetite for hard work and have very good skill sets. They have been really impressive.” The English duo were only paired together by Jones in their
final World Cup warm-up matches, something that All Blacks coach Steve Hansen also did with Cane, the first choice openside flanker since Richie McCaw retired in 2015, and Ardie Savea.
Savea’s form this year made it hard for Hansen not to find a way to fit him into the starting team, and after he failed to settle on a first-choice blindside
flanker he selected Savea in the number six jersey.
Cane, Savea and captain and number eight Kieran Read have been the preferred loose forward combination since the All Blacks first Bledisloe Cup fixture against Australia in Perth.
The All Blacks were hammered 47-26 by the Wallabies in that game,
although they where they were not helped by Scott Barrett’s red card.
After their thrashing at the hands of the Wallabies, where the smaller Cane and Savea were dominated by Lukhan Salakaia-Loto and Isi Naisarani, the All Blacks openside was initially unsure if Hansen would persist with the approach.
Hansen, however, stuck with the combination and Cane said it was easy to see why in the modern game.
“I guess it might show how the game has evolved,” Cane said. “We know how teams are so structured and the best chance to attack from (unstructured play) is from turnover ball so you might increase your chances ever so slightly.” Despite becoming what appears to be the first-choice combination, Cane said they were still working on improvements, especially against England with a place in the final at stake.
“It has been working well,” Cane said. “Ardie has been working really hard on some of his set piece work, which a six is supposed to do more.
“But pretty much apart from the set piece our roles are interchangeable, whether that’s attack or defence. I think we definitely have room for improvement but we’re going all right.”