JWC: England boss frustrated at sides performance
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JWC: England boss frustrated at sides performance
England U20 head coach Jon Callard was frustrated with the number of mistakes made by his team as they snuck into the semi-finals at the U20 World Championship.
France got off to a fast start in the Pool A decider and ended up winning 30-18 to advance at the top of the group into the semi-finals, leaving England with a nervous wait to see if other results would go their way.
Australia failed to pick up a losing bonus point against South Africa and Ireland were defeated by New Zealand, meaning England qualified as the fourth seeds and face a re-match with last year’s opponents in the final, South Africa.
Callard gave some credit to France for disrupting England’s work at the scrum and lineout, while acknowledging that the defeat and close shave would benefit his young players moving forward.
“Credit to France, they fronted up and made inroads into our set-piece which caused us some frustration and we then compounded errors with errors,” said Callard.
“I was proud of how the lads stuck at it in a very physical and dogmatic game but unfortunately we made mistakes in a way that we haven’t so far this tournament.
“The players were disappointed with their performance, and not to top the pool, but they will learn from this experience and will be stronger for it both in terms of this competition and their international careers going forward.”
France got off to a fast start in the Pool A decider and ended up winning 30-18 to advance at the top of the group into the semi-finals, leaving England with a nervous wait to see if other results would go their way.
Australia failed to pick up a losing bonus point against South Africa and Ireland were defeated by New Zealand, meaning England qualified as the fourth seeds and face a re-match with last year’s opponents in the final, South Africa.
Callard gave some credit to France for disrupting England’s work at the scrum and lineout, while acknowledging that the defeat and close shave would benefit his young players moving forward.
“Credit to France, they fronted up and made inroads into our set-piece which caused us some frustration and we then compounded errors with errors,” said Callard.
“I was proud of how the lads stuck at it in a very physical and dogmatic game but unfortunately we made mistakes in a way that we haven’t so far this tournament.
“The players were disappointed with their performance, and not to top the pool, but they will learn from this experience and will be stronger for it both in terms of this competition and their international careers going forward.”
