Amidst talk of bonus points, Graham Steadman states defence

MUCH of the focus on Scotland’s abilities has revolved around the search for tries, but realistically the quality of defence will be where all hope of springing their biggest upset in World Cup history and reaching the quarter-finals begins in Saturday’s final Pool B clash with England at Eden Park.

As interest in this game builds across New Zealand, underlined by the doubling in media members at their press conference yesterday, some intrigue was added to the plot by the dulcet Yorkshire tones of Scotland’s defence coach Graham Steadman. As if there was not enough in a head coach from Somerset, Steadman, the former Castleford and GB Rugby League full-back, provide strong English influence in the Scots camp, but he was quick to warn off the local media yesterday when the questions started about split loyalties.

“I’m English and I’m proud to be English,” he said, “and when we’re not playing England I always look for their results. But this is all about preparing the team and getting them right for the weekend, against England. It’s another opposition.”

And when lock Richie Gray was pushed on whether the team would take greater comfort from knocking old rivals England out of the tournament, and duly played the diplomatic card, Steadman interjected with: “We’ll all be doing cartwheels!”

There is never any doubting the passion that exists within Steadman for the challenges he faces in turning Scotland into a consistently sound defensive unit. Alan Tait was the defensive brains behind Scotland’s Calcutta Cup wins of 2006 and 2008 and after playing his part in Ireland’s back-to-back wins over England and Triple Crowns in 2006 and 2007, as well as home wins over South Africa and Australia, Steadman moved to Edinburgh and followed the work of his fellow League star in steeling Scotland in victories over Australia, South Africa, Argentina and Ireland, and a draw with England, results all founded on a solid platform of defence.

Robinson is also acutely aware of what a good Scottish defence can yield as his term as England head coach came to an end in the same year that his team buckled in the face of a resilient Scots effort at Murrayfield in 2006, and lost a try-less Test match 18-12 – a margin just two points less than he needs now as Scotland coach. Steadman is plotting a similar brick-wall display for this weekend, but when it comes to nullifying the strengths of potent England attackers Manu Tuilagi, Chris Ashton and Ben Foden he acknowledged that stopping these players relies heavily on cutting off their supply.

“That’s why I look at the forwards first and foremost,” he said. “If they [England] get a platform and they get good go-forward that’s when these guys become a threat. If we can contain the forward pack that will put us in a very strong position to come out winners. We’ve got to get that right first because we can’t allow them to be playing off front-foot ball.

“They are in a bit of luxury position because they have a lot of quality in depth and whichever back field players they throw at us we’ve got to be on top of our game. But first and foremost we’ve got to deal with the pack.”

He was pushed inevitably on how one wraps up the most exciting new England recruit, Manusamoa Tuilagi. Born in 1991, in Fatausi-Fogapoa, Samoa, Tuilagi is the youngest of six brothers who have all played for Leicester, but while the others – Fereti, Henry, Alesana, Anitelea and Vavae – have represented the country of their birth Manu’s seven years in England persuaded him to take on those around him for a place in the England team. He came through the age-grade teams and made his Leicester debut a year ago, but found his biggest obstacle to representing England came off the field when the Home Office discovered that he had arrived on a six-month visa and requested that he be deported.

He was also banned for ten weeks in May, ironically for punching Ashton in the Premiership semi-final, but he had his supporters and a campaign backed by Leicester, the RFU and MPs won the day and the 20-year-old pulled on the England jersey for the first time against Wales in the World Cup warm-ups. He duly scored and did so again in his second game, against Ireland, and has added two more against Romania and Georgia in the World Cup. Steadman said: “We’ll certainly pay him attention. He is a threat if he gets a bit of momentum off quick ball, so we’ve got to get up and stop his momentum. He is a little bit raw but he will back himself and in the personal battles against that particular player we’ve got to make sure we come out of on top, because if he gets a head of steam he can cause problems.”

Steadman accepted that England are becoming a team some now believe to be capable of challenging in this tournament largely because of their outside backs with Mark Cueto, Delon Armitage, Tuilagi, Foden and Ashton having contributed 12 of England’s 16 tries in the last two games. Ashton had grabbed nine tries in his first 13 Tests, and has now added five in this World Cup, having only made his debut against France in February, 2010. Steadman knows all about his threat.

“I’ve known Chris for a lot of years,” said the coach. “I watched his progress working through the academy development set-up at Wigan when I was coaching at Castleford, and he was a player you could see would make it as a future international in both codes. I thought his transition from league to union was a little bit early, but it was the right decision for him as has been proven by his performances for England. What he does very well is he anticipates half-breaks and gets on the end of them. It is a natural instinct, but players are encouraged to do it [in League].

“Chris makes himself available, certainly in the latter stages of a game when forwards are renowned for maybe not being as totally focused as they should be, and he will target the inside shoulder around the breakdown area. So we have to be very smart and aware of when he is making himself available to create opportunities for them.”

In March this year Ashton was flying, literally with his try-scoring dives, having followed up a brace against the Wallabies in November with six in England’s opening wins over Wales and Italy to equal the Six Nations record. He has actually scored an incredible 86 tries for Northampton in 97 games since switching from Rugby League in 2007.

So Scotland headed to Twickenham this year with the bookmakers suggesting Martin Johnson’s men were not just going to win the Grand Slam but soar to it with a new try-scoring record. And what happened? Scotland shut them down, even with an unconvincing scrum and lineout problems, and Ashton could have been in the stand for all the influence he had as England limped home to a 22-16 win. The sides named today for this weekend’s World Cup encounter will feature most of the XVs that lined up in March, and while a different game with different pressures on a different stage Steadman agreed that that performance provided a good template for the Scots heading into this one. “We had a game-plan in place with certain aspects of his [Ashton’s] game that we felt could nullify and not too much has changed since then. The fact that we closed him out in that game gives the boys confidence that the systems we have in place do work.”

So again the test for Scotland, as with any of England’s opponents, is to stop them at source – in the forward battle – and strive to win by eight points or more.

“We’ve got another chance and that’s the bottom line,” added Steadman. “We can’t afford to let it [defensive slackness] happen again. “If we switch off, having conceded a penalty, and let the opposition play off a free play and execute as they [Argentina] did ... no, that won’t happen again.

“What we’ve got to look at first and foremost is getting a victory. We know what’s required, but we’ve got to get the victory first and if the scoreboard takes care of itself, having played well for the 80 minutes, we can come off the field happy.”