England EXCLUSIVE: Sam Underhill desperate to prove himself to Eddie Jones
EDDIE JONES has always liked to keep his players on their toes, take them out of their comfort zone, challenge them mentally and physically.
And that extends even to the way they learn the starting line-up.
Sam Underhill, the Bath tackling machine hoping to make his fourth England start in their NatWest Six Nations opener in Rome on Sunday, learned he would definitely be in the jersey for the first time, against the Barbarians last May, from an unexpected source. His mum.
“It varies from week to week when and how Eddie might tell you,” he said. “Sometimes you get told after a session. There was one game I didn’t actually get told at all.
“He put all the bibs out in training and said, ‘Go stand where you think you should be standing’.” Through all the sessions I had been running at seven. I knew who wasn’t starting, but he hadn’t told me that I was.
“No one stood in the seven spot so I just went there, but no one actually told me. Then I got back and my mum had texted me to tell me. She was the first.”
My mum had texted me to tell me
Olivia Underhill will be hoping to get her phone out again on Friday morning, when Jones names his team to face Italy.
With Chris Robshaw’s back giving him trouble, the old warhorse may have to sit this one out, giving her son the opportunity to make his Six Nations bow.
He is certainly ready. Having made a strong start to international life with wins against Argentina home and away, and Australia at Twickenham,
Jones said he wanted more from Underhill than simply his destructive tackling, that his attacking skills needed some attention. So the 21-year-old has been picking the brains inside some of the older heads in the England camp.
Eddie Jones talks about his Rugby world cup preparation
“There’s no better time than now to start working on it, to learn from the players around me,” he said. “There are some great attackers here, so I pick things up from them in training.
“It’s more team-based here, an awareness, than a skill thing. Knowing where to be is more important than what you do when you’re there.
“There’s an element of decision-making in there, so when it comes to guys like George Ford and Owen Farrell, they’re awesome for that. So many of the back row are good in terms of their positional play, their support lines.
“Then there’s Jonathan Joseph, and a few of the other inside backs, who have a different sense in terms of support play. It’s about taking a bit from everyone.
“Club rugby is a bit more structured, certainly at Bath, and the big thing we’re trying to do here is play what’s in front of us, and have the skill sets to find space. You have to be pro-active and be used to playing in different circumstances. That’s also quite exciting, because you’re not confined to a certain way of doing things. There’s a bit more freedom.”
Underhill has also found the changes made to the breakdown laws have been of benefit to him. With the tackler compelled to get back on his feet before playing the ball, a greater emphasis has been made on the quality of the hit. That suits him down to the ground — exactly where most of his victims end up, usually several metres back from where they first met.
“You now need to get more out of the tackle, in terms of affecting ball speed,” he said. “Last season you could have an average tackle and a turnover, whereas this season you have to get back behind the back foot before you can play the ball again, by which time it has probably gone.
“It’s more important to have a dominant collision and it suits the way I play. I’ve always looked for dominant tackles more than getting involved in the breakdown, and the laws are favoured towards that.”
Just as the Jones environment is to Underhill.
England, with the most players and the most money, will be the ones everyone wants to beat over the next eight weeks, but Underhill said: “We want to hunt these teams down. We’re quite a young group, we’re hungry to prove ourselves and put in some good performances. We want to be ruthless.”
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