Itoje rejects Carling criticism of England coaches
Men's Six Nations: England v ItalyVenue: Allianz Stadium, Twickenham Date: Sunday, 9 March Kick-off: 15:00 GMTCoverage: Listen to match commentary on BBC Sport website and app; follow live text commentary online; watch on ITV1
England captain Maro Itoje has rejected Will Carling's suggestion that Steve Borthwick's inexperienced coaching set-up is preventing the side from reaching its potential. Speaking to BBC Radio 4 on Tuesday, former skipper Carling questioned the "calibre" of the coaching team and whether it was the "best we can put out there".England have been criticised for their style of play during the Six Nations despite recovering from an opening round defeat by Ireland with consecutive one-point victories over France and Scotland at home. Lock Itoje, who was appointed captain by head coach Borthwick before this year's tournament, said he disagreed with Carling's sentiment."With all due respect to Will, I don't necessarily agree or accept that characterisation of our coaching staff," the 30-year-old told BBC Sport. "I have been unbelievably impressed with how they have gone about their business and coached us. "The players work really hard but the coaches, trust me, they work extremely hard. "My experience of them has been nothing but positive. I think most people can see an improvement in the team and a large part of that is down to the work the coaches have done and the positions they are putting us in. I think we are tracking in the right direction."Borthwick is leading an international team for the first time, having previously held coaching roles with England and Japan before guiding Leicester Tigers to the Premiership title in 2022.Attack coach Richard Wigglesworth and Kevin Sinfield, who began as defensive lead before moving into a skills role, joined Borthwick from the Tigers backroom.Defence coach Joe El-Abd is also working in his first international job, combining the role alongside his responsibilities with second-tier French side Oyonnax until the end of the season, while 33-year-old scrum coach Tom Harrison is younger than hooker Jamie George, who will win his 100th cap against Italy on Sunday.Asked whether it was easy to ignore noise from outside England's camp, Itoje said: "It's a requirement. "We play a public sport, in front of 80,000 at Allianz Stadium and millions at home every time we pull on an England jersey. "We want people to be engaged with rugby and have an opinion because if they don't, it probably means they don't care but as players, what we need to do is focus on what we deem important. That is the skill of anybody who lives a relatively public life. "People will have an opinion on what you do but what really matters is the opinion you have and the opinion of those in your circles."Itoje's backing of the coaching staff was echoed by utility back Elliot Daly, who has been rewarded for his impressive form off the bench with a starting berth at full-back against the Azzurri.Responding to Carling's comments, Daly told BBC Sport: "I don't think that is true."The coaches have been around this environment for a while, especially Wiggy, Steve and Kev. As a group, they work really well together."The relationship the players have with the coaching staff is a really good one."
'We are aspiring to reach an 80-minute performance'
Itoje does accept, however, that England did not perform to their capabilities last time out, despite beating Scotland to regain the Calcutta Cup for the first time in four years.The hosts were outscored by three tries to one at Allianz Stadium and were grateful for Finn Russell missing a late conversion attempt that would have secured victory for Scotland.England remain in contention to win the title as they return to their home on Sunday to face an Italy side who have never beaten them and Itoje says his players are targeting a complete performance."We didn't perform as well as we wanted to in all areas but some of what we did was brilliant," added Itoje."That was a fixture we hadn't been successful in for a number of years so to get the Calcutta Cup back at Twickenham is a good achievement. "Our discipline was OK but we would like to tidy it up, and we would like to get our attack a bit sharper. In order to do that we need to win more territory." Asked what progress would look like against Italy, Itoje added: "Every time you step on the field you are aspiring to reach an 80-minute performance. Not many teams do it because it is so difficult. "There are times when the opposition is on top and it's about how you wrestle back control. We want to take a step forward in all the areas we have spoken about, whether it's set-piece, kicking game, defence or attack."
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'Part of my day job is system development,' said Ferguson, the former East Stirlingshire, Alloa Athletic, Hamilton Academical, Partick Thistle and Stenhousemuir defensive midfielder who is now assistant to Gary Naysmith at the third tier Ochilview Park part-timers. 'We're always looking ahead. We're involved in Olympic sports and we look four years, eight years, even 12 years down the line. We look at pathways and what we've got coming through.' Does Ferguson think that this country's leading football clubs have the same forward-thinking attitude? Does he believe their chairmen, managers, owners, chief executives and sporting directors are safeguarding the future of our national game? Is he hopeful that Scotland will flourish as a result of the farsighted groundwork they are laying now? The posts about the number of homegrown and under-21 players who were involved in the Premiership last season which he fired up on the X (formerly Twitter) social media platform last week suggested that he very much does not. Read more: The statistics which he personally collated were highly concerning. But here are two of the most startling. He showed that the overall percentage of Scots to start top flight games during the 2024/25 campaign was just 31.46 per cent. That was down from 45 per cent three years ago. In addition, he highlighted that, on average, just four out of the 132 players who kicked games off in the elite division every weekend were under the age of 21 and originally hailed from these shores. He can foresee major issues arising in the future as a consequence. 'I started doing this back in around 2018 or 2019,' said Ferguson. 'I went back to the 1980s and 1990s and looked at the trend of more non-Scots coming into the Scottish game. I tracked the summer and winter signings and looked at the team sheets every week. It worried me back then, but it's getting worse every year. 'When I started doing this, the number of Scots who were starting every week on average was at about 48 to 49 per cent. Now it is down in the low 30s. I think it is a major problem already. And it is only going to get worse and worse. There needs to be an intervention before it becomes an even bigger problem. 'It's not just the Premiership where it's a problem now, it's feeding down into the lower divisions as well. When you look at a line-up of a Championship team, there are often a lot of non-Scots in there. We are reaching a crisis point. We can be producing far more players than we are.' (Image: SNS Group) So what, if anything, does Ferguson feel can be done to turn things around? The man who has just helped Stenhousemuir to secure a play-off place in their first season up in League One admits that he is puzzled by the Premiership clubs' reliance on overseas players. He has long been convinced they would be better off shopping local. 'I have always felt, going right back to my own playing days, that Scottish players and probably Scottish staff don't get the recognition that they were due when they were playing at a lower level,' he said. 'They were never picked up. 'There have been so many examples of that over the years. But Lawrence Shankland is the one really jumped out to me. I can remember watching him when I was the manager at Stenhousemuir and we played Ayr United. He was the difference in the game. 'I went and spoke to Hearts about him. I got told, 'Yeah, we've had him watched, but we don't think he's quick enough, we don't think he's strong enough'. They had so many reasons for not signing him. 'But they went straight out and signed David Vanecek from a club in the second tier in the Czech Republic. He lasted five or six months and then he was gone. I looked at that and thought, 'Why not look at the best players in the leagues below here?'. Hearts eventually signed Lawrence, but they could have had him years earlier if they had just taken a chance.' Read more: Ferguson is optimistic that Scottish clubs will look at the success which Falkirk have enjoyed under John McGlynn in the past couple of years – they have won League One and the Championship in successive seasons – and realise that promoting promising talent from the lower leagues can yield impressive results. 'Falkirk have been a breath of fresh air for me,' he said. 'They've taken players up from the Lowland League, they've even looked at the East of Scotland League. Those players have made big jumps up. 'Not all of them will be able to step up. But a lot of them have and are progressing. They have had an unbelievable couple of seasons. For me, John should be getting far more recognition for what he has done.' Ferguson continued, 'I just think there's snobbery across the Scottish game. There are a lot of good players in Scotland, but the pathway is not there for them. The opportunities for them to play at the top are so limited it's incredible. 'There has been talk about a Scottish goalkeeping crisis recently. For me, there is a bit of snobbery there too. Nicky Hogarth at Falkirk is a far better goalkeeper than the lad Cieran Slicker at Ipswich Town. Now, that might not be the case in the future. But at this moment in time Hogarth has won back-to-back league titles and is a better player. (Image: Craig Williamson - SNS Group) 'Hogarth has been at Rangers and Nottingham Forest as a young player, Slicker has been at Manchester City and Ipswich Town. So they both have a good grounding. But Slicker, a player who has never played a league game, gets selected for the national squad. For me, that kind of belittles playing for your country. Why not give Hogarth a chance? 'I think there are players there now who could easily make the step up to the Premiership. Not every player is going to make the grade, that's just never going to happen. But there are a lot of players who will get recruited from other countries who will come and go in the blink of an eye. Fans will forget about them in a couple of weeks. 'But I don't think the fanbase helps things ether if I am being honest. People don't get as excited about signing a player or a manager from the Championship as they do about bringing in a foreign player or manager. The media is exactly the same.' 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What used to happen when three substitutes were allowed was there would be 14 players stripped, two in the stand and the rest would be playing somewhere else, in a reserve match or whatever. 'Now you've got 19 to 20 players stripped and another three sitting in the stands. Those players are nowhere near playing in a football match because they've got so many players in front of them. Squads are so swollen now. Even if you are a really good young player you need to get in front of four or five senior players to get in. 'It's difficult for any manager to say. 'I really like this 17-year-old, he's going straight in the team'. He needs to put that kid above three, four, five different senior players. Why would you want to have such a big squad and have a youth academy as well? That doesn't allow kids to progress. There are so many things that happen at the top level that don't make sense to me.' The Cooperation System which the SFA rolled out last week – which will see up to three Scotland qualified players at Premiership and Championship clubs move to lower league outfits freely on loan going forward – makes perfect sense to him. 'I love it,' said Ferguson. 'I love the concept of it. I also love that there is a plan there. I've always felt that the loan system, and I understand why this is, is very reactive. What generally happens is a club puts together a squad and then they need to get players in to cover for injuries. 'The Cooperation System is a bit more of a planned approach. It sounds as if loan players will be identified throughout the course of the close season, going into pre-season, when a manager or a recruitment team are building their squad. (Image: SNS Group Alan Harvey) 'I think it's a very, very good piece of work. I don't think managers will build their team around the loan player, it won't be as extreme as that. But I think a player will fit in straight away, They won't be trying to force their way into the team. It is a refreshing concept.' He continued, 'Will a young player who is number 21, 22 or 23 in a first team squad be considered for it? Or will they be kept at their parent club to make up numbers? That would be my concern. Will the guy who is 22 or 23 be allowed to go out and play? If he isn't, he could spend another season not playing. 'Is it best for the club in the long-term to get a player out, to get them experience of playing football, to get their name known, to hopefully have an impact? Massively. It should have a positive impact on the player and of course on the club. 'But a manager might want to hold onto him, just in case. He might have injuries and need to play a kid. That is how Forrester came through and established himself as a Premiership player. But, at the same time, six months could pass and a kid won't play. We will see how it works in practice. 'But we are very much on board with it at Stenhousemuir. We feel as though it's something that could be of value to us. Martin Christie, our head of recruitment, is speaking to clubs at the moment. There are ongoing conversations.' Ferguson is eager to see more Scottish players in the lower leagues getting the chance to show what they can do in the Premiership and more academy kids getting promoted into first teams than is currently the case. He fears the national team will ultimately suffer unless there is a long overdue change in attitudes and the trend he has identified is allowed to continue. 'Generally speaking, the first team manager at a club looks after the first team and that is it,' he said. 'That is the way it should be. But why is he not involved in looking at what the pathway into the first team looks like? 'There is an obvious issue. A coach knows he may not be in a job in four weeks' time if he doesn't get results. So why look four years down the line? The dynamics around football are different to any other sport. That is good and bad at the same time. 'The culture of football, the tribal nature of the sport, the supporters' demand for success in the here and now makes people focus on that. Understandably so. But I do think it is unusual compared to other sports, that failure to develop a strategy which can enable a club to be successful long-term. Don't get me wrong, many clubs will try to do it, but there is a massive disconnect between what they want to achieve and what they actually do.' Ferguson continued, 'We're already seeing a lack of depth when we've got injuries. We have quality players, John McGinn, Scott McTominay, Craig Gordon, Andy Robertson, Kieran Tierney. But quite a few of these players are getting towards the end of their careers, they're in their late 20s or early 30s. 'Could getting five per cent of the Scottish players who are in the Premiership to follow Lewis Ferguson, Billy Gilmour and Scott McTominay and move on to a bigger league in Europe be a target? If it can be then surely five per cent of 100 is better than five per cent of 30. 'My real worry is the talent pool is getting diluted. That is definitely the trend. It is on a decline, a continuous decline. Unless something changes, Scottish players will be making up just 20 per cent of the teams in a few years.'
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Freddie Burns interview: Bath fans remember me as a t--- so I'm supporting Leicester
He has just returned to his hometown of Bath, having swept the board at the Japanese League One awards, but Freddie Burns insists he has no mixed loyalties ahead of the Premiership final on Saturday. The former England fly-half had once grown up dreaming of playing at the Rec, and managed that feat for three seasons, having signed for Bath in 2017. Yet it was his heroics in the 2022 final, when he dropped the match-winning goal for Leicester Tigers in their 15-12 victory against Saracens that copper-fastened his sense of loyalty. 'I just feel more connected to Leicester,' says the 35-year-old. 'There is something special about Leicester, something different. I had great support from the Bath fans as well, but once you help a team win the Premiership that changes things. 'Bath fans probably remember me as the t--- who dropped the ball over the line, whereas the Leicester fans see me as the guy who kicked the drop-goal for them. That probably sums it up, mate.' The costly blunder he refers to came in a Champions Cup match for Bath against Toulouse in 2018, when he started celebrating a 'try' before touching the ball down. Humiliation followed seconds later as Maxime Médard took full advantage of Burns's showboating by knocking the ball out of his hands. Five minutes to go... Chance to win the game... "Oh he's dropped it!" A brutal moment for Bath star Freddie Burns 😣 — Rugby on TNT Sports (@rugbyontnt) October 13, 2018 They were underwhelming times for Bath – and for Burns, too. But at Leicester he found himself again when he returned for a second spell at the club in 2021 with Steve Borthwick as director of rugby. He recalls the time when his match-winning cameo for England against the All Blacks at Twickenham in 2012 suggested a dazzling Test career lay ahead of him. After a decade of frustration, when he found himself thrust into centre stage in the final against Saracens after just 24 minutes when George Ford was forced off with an Achilles injury, he was determined to seize the moment. 'I still remember the look on Steve Borthwick's face when George went down,' Burns says with a chuckle. 'He ran from the top of the stands down to try to get a message on. I think everyone was thinking, 'Oh f---, Fred's going on, what is going to happen?' But I always felt through my career, I always thrived in those bigger games. I remember seeing a few things in the first 20 minutes when I thought if we were a little bit braver, there would be a few opportunities for us.' The magnitude of the dropped-goal only hit him for the first time on the train up to Leicester with his parents to watch the semi-final victory over Sale Sharks last Saturday. 'I have always hated sitting in the pocket,' he says. 'I never liked those 10s who were happy to drop back deep for a few phases. Any drop-goals I have hit in my career, I have always hit them last-minute. 'We had a few phases, and I felt like we had Sarries on the ropes for a bit. All I remember is seeing Jasper Wiese running over Jamie George and Maro Itoje and as soon as I saw that and it gave us a little nudge forward, I knew I had to hit it. 'I didn't want to wait too long in case we got turned over. I am not religious or spiritual in any way, but it was the only time in my career that I felt there was something else at play. It felt like it was meant to be. I didn't feel stressed or nervous. It was like something else took over. 'I was completely taken aback by the reception I got last Saturday when I went back. I cop a lot of flak from the boys, but I don't think it is a moment that will ever quite sink in.' THE GREATEST MOMENT IN FREDDIE BURNS' LIFE! 🤩 Comes on to replace an injured George Ford, picks up an injury himself, soldiers on, and kicks the drop-goal to win the match 🤯 Simply incredible! #GallagherPremFinal — Rugby on TNT Sports (@rugbyontnt) June 18, 2022 He showed his colours while standing on a bridge to watch the 'Tigers' prowl' as the players walked to the stadium and was handed a green flare to let off by the club's chief executive, Andrea Pinchen. 'I just hoped Dan Cole would see me because I knew he would have muttered something like what I nutter I was,' he adds. 'I might have to sneak another flare in this Saturday.' On Saturday Burns is working for Talksport as a pundit and, having returned from Japan, where he won all the second division awards – most valuable player, player's player of the season, top try-scorer and top points-scorer for Toyota Shokki Shuttles – he hopes to keep playing on next season. He could even end up in the Premiership again at some stage. Does he think Leicester can upset the odds once more? Under the stewardship of Johann van Graan, Bath have been transformed into an English powerhouse again and Burns finds himself supporting the underdogs in Saturday's final, but he is adamant that Michael Cheika's side can repeat the 2022 triumph. 'Look in some ways I am in a win-win situation,' he says. 'If Bath win, I would be really pleased for guys like Tom Dunn and Charlie Ewels, who I played with. But on the flip side, there are guys like Ben Youngs, Dan Cole and Julian Montoya who are finishing up with the Tigers and I would love to see them have a great send-off. 'I think it is Bath's final to lose. But look at last year. I thought Northampton were the best team in the league last year, and they probably should have lost to Bath, who were the better team on the day. 'I think the defensive side of Leicester has improved massively in the latter part of the season and they can definitely cause an upset.'
