Q&A
Ben Jaycock catches up with England U20 head coach Mark Mapletoft to assess the current state of play in the Six Nations
So, Mark three wins from three you must be delighted with how your side are performing in this year’s U20 Six Nations?
We’re very happy. We started well last year, not as well as we’ve picked up one extra match point this time but we’ve got the two hardest games to come as they are the first and second ranked teams in the world based on Junior World Cup finish.
First win in Italy in four years was a great way to start the tournament against a very good side shown by their recent win over France?
They actually played really well in Ireland, I’m not suggesting they should have won but they could have won. They are much improved, so our preparation when we went over there was about not taking them lightly and having that mindset of focusing on the aspects we want to be as a group. I thought we did that well, wasn’t a perfect performance but to win 36-11 given the context of their other results is really pleasing. I’m sure France were missing quite a few players looking at the team sheet but to win there and run Ireland close in Cork is a great achievement for them. We nullified their scrum threat, nullified their maul threat and were quite clinical with the opportunities we got.
What is the biggest work on for your side?
We were clinical against Italy but haven’t been since. The conditions haven’t helped, it wasn’t dry in Italy but the Wales game was pretty wet and made conditions difficult. When you’ve got a cross-bridge derby like that, Wales weren’t going to come over and surrender meekly as that’s not in their DNA. We had 21 entries into their 22 and to come away with just the points we did; four tries and kicked three out of six, meant we weren’t clinical in any aspect. We’d been really good in our warm up games and into Italy but dropped off against Wales and didn’t score as many points as our possession and forward domination suggested we should have done.
Possibly not your area of expertise as a former back but the scrum was on fire against Wales leading the way for a big win at The Rec, that must be great to see the big guys up front performing well?
You have to remember where a lot of these players are on their journeys, most of them are first or second year out of school so haven’t got a massive amount of experience dominating up front. I hear throwaway comments suggesting playing off front foot ball is easy but it’s sometimes not easy as the pressure builds when you don’t convert opportunities which is an experience in itself. We didn’t get the same dominance against Scotland, some dominance but conditions definitely played a part.
Tougher tests to come none more so than back-to-back Grand Slam champions I
