Clive Talks to Zurich on mauls the legalities!
Clive
By Kath 17/10/03
October 17 2003
Clive talks to Zurich's Andrew Titheridge about England's style of play and rolling mauls - and how the Barmy Army makes a difference!
For immediate release: 17 October 2003
Issued on behalf of Zurich
Clive Woodward (transcript two) for www.zurichpremiership.com
Friday 17th October 2003
Post Media Conference at 1pm
Perth
Andrew Titheridge: Changes to the side, Matt Dawson and also Richard Hill
out.
Clive Woodward: As of Wednesday we thought that they were
going to be fit, but the
medical team with those players advised me this morning just before the team
did a really quite a heavy fitness test that they are not quite right and
the players were aware that there was a fully fit Bracken and Moody ready to
come in. It’s part of the team rules, you just cannot go into these big
games with anyone who is not 100%. To me we just move on, we have Gomarsall
who will come onto the bench and Joe Worsley also comes on the bench. You
have got to trust your squad and I trust all thirty players and I am very,
very confident in all of their ability and to put any of them out against
any of these international teams. So that is what we have done, it just adds
a bit of spice to the whole thing, no more than that.
Andrew Titheridge: There has been a lot of comment in the papers this
week mainly from
the Australians about the style of England’s play, how do you respond to
that?
Clive Woodward: We just laugh to be frank, we have been
expecting it, every time we come down here we get it, so you know it is going to come but to be fair it
is not just the Australians, with the exceptions of the Argentineans, it has been every team. Even Dave Clark, the Canadian Coach, weighed into Martin
Johnson about goodness knows what yesterday, I don’t know why he is talking about England, as he is coach of the Canadian team. You just expect it, you
feed off it in the team room, you feed off it as a coaching group and to be
brutally honest you just don’t respond at all. The rules are very clear and
I think that if you speak to any international referee, and they are the only people who count, they really enjoy refereeing England and if you look
at our penalty count it is extremely low. England play our way, within the
rules of the game and it is very, very effective and maybe we have just got
one or two people worried.
Andrew Titheridge: The media generally were onto you about rolling mauls
the legalities
or illegalities, but it is something that is used in the Zurich Premiership
all the time.
Clive Woodward: It is not just the Zurich Premiership it is used
in rugby the whole time, and I think that this was all sparked by one comment by John Eales.
John Eales wasn’t saying that England are cheats or that it was illegal but
he was just saying that players have to stay attached and he highlighted one
here it wasn’t, but that will be something that happens. We want the
players to be attached as we want to score, and we don’t want to get penalised. There is no reason why we don’t want the player to be detached,
we just think that it has been blown out of all proportion. The most
important person is the referee Peter Marshall who I met with yesterday and
he knows the laws inside out and he is very happy with what England do, he
like me is taking it with a pinch of salt and a smile.
Andrew Titheridge: Are you and the players aware of the hu ge levels of
support that the
World Cup and this game in particular has back home?
Clive Woodward: I think we are but we will concentrate on our own
team and on what we
are doing but we are aware of the huge ground swell of support back home,
there is no doubt about that, from when the team are phoning home and speaking to friends and relations. It is great but we are very clear about
this, it is about winning this game on Saturday but having the support back
home as well as the support out here has been awesome.
I really do think that we will dominate the crowd with the English Barmy
Army on Saturday, there are so many white shirts in Perth, although there
are a lot of South Africans as well. It will be one hell of an atmosphere at
the game on Saturday night and I just hope that all the fans get behind the
team from the moment that they leave the hotel till the moment they finish
the game.
The ground swell of support is there and I really appreciated it. I have
had faxes from the Queen, Tony Blair and Iain Duncan-Smith, the support is
coming from all quarters and the team has had literally thousands of
messages from all the fans. It is greatly appreciated but the real pressure
is coming from within the team room and we are just determined not to let
anyone down.
Andrew Titheridge: The Barmy Army is here, jumbo loads have
come over apparently for this
one game and then are going back, if we win the crowd does it make a big
difference to the team?
Clive Woodward: It makes a difference but I would never say it was the
difference
between winning and losing. I think that England can win away from home when
here are no supporters there, which we have. The key time is in the warm
up, when the team walk out to do their pre-match routines the noise is just
fantastic and before the match against Georgia it was quite emotional and
inspiring. I hope the crowd get to the stadium way before kick off and get
behind the team when they are out there warming up. It does make a big
difference and you know how you feel as a player and a coach but it is down
to us as a team and we are determined not to let anyone down.
Andrew Titheridge: Prince Harry is coming over, so we could
use him on the bench if necessary?
Clive Woodward: Yes he is here, and he has been in contact and says
that he is
available for selection! No, he is coming to the game and that is great. I
am hoping that we get huge support tomorrow from the England supporters
because it does make a difference. So if Prince Harry is there that is great
to know and I hope he has his white shirt on!
ENDS.