Monday, 3 June 2013

England rugby captain Tom Wood says they have to cut out mistakes to beat ...


By

Rob Wildman




PUBLISHED:


11:28, 3 June 2013




|

UPDATED:


11:28, 3 June 2013




England captain Tom Wood has urged his team to cut out the errors in next Saturday’s first Test against Argentina in Salta.


Wood, leading a senior England team for the first time, included himself in a damning after-match assessment following a 41-21 win over a South American XV in Montevideo on Sunday.


‘I think we were all individually guilty of one mistake and that amounted to a lot of frustration and a very slow start for us,’ Wood admitted after the non-cap international.


Stretch: Tom Wood takes a catch at the line-out against the South American XV


Stretch: Tom Wood takes a catch at the line-out against the South American XV


England started so poorly they allowed the home team an early lead of 7-0 before a blitz of five tries turned the match, No 8 Billy Vunipola scoring three on his first start in a senior shirt, in the run up to half-time.


Wood said he thought his pre-match talk in the dressing room had set the right tone, but it did not produce the right performance as England made a number of mistakes in the first quarter.


‘We felt we said all the right things in the changing room,’ Wood insisted. ‘But we were slow to start and they took the game to us.


‘That first score was disappointing, but we rallied under the posts and we made them work,’ he added about ow a penalty try had been awarded following a deliberate knock on by Jonny May.


Match winner: Billy Vunipola scored a hat-trick in just six minutes


Match winner: Billy Vunipola scored a hat-trick in just six minutes


May was sent to the sin bin for his illegal intervention but that did not stop England from quickly equalising through the first of two tries by full-back Ben Foden.


England dominated the rest of the half as Vunipola touching down three times before Wood grabbed the fifth in the final minute of the half.


The second half brought two tries for each team which left Wood and head coach Stuart Lancaster looking far from happy afterwards.


Pass: Scrum-half Richard Wigglesworth releases the ball under pressure


Pass: Scrum-half Richard Wigglesworth releases the ball under pressure


Wood said he had no excuse for the slow start and added: ‘We were really frustrated it took us 10 to 15 minutes to get into the game.’ Though England won, Lancaster said he had a number of difficult decisions to make ahead of the first Test match in Salta, in the north-west of Argentina.


Vunipola and Foden are far from assured of a starting place. The Wasps No 8 could well lose out to Gloucester’s Ben Morgan while the full-back place could go to Mike Brown, who was a regular in the Six Nations team.


England land in Salta on Monday afternoon and Lancaster has already warned that Tuesday’s training session will be tough to help prepare his team for Pumas next Saturday. 


Wrapped up: England


Wrapped up: England’s Luther Burrell gets into the action








England rugby captain Tom Wood says they have to cut out mistakes to beat ...
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