Following England U20s opening day win against Ireland in the U20 Six Nations, head coach Mark Mapletoft and captain Tom Burrow look ahead to the next game against France. With the boss naming Burrow as his captain for the second successive game, leadership was a hot topic of conversation.
It appeared that the captaincy roles might have been shared for this tournament based on some quotes by Mapletoft. Given that he had named the same captain again, he was asked about what Burrow had done to keep the armband.
He said: “We’re very pleased with where we’re currently at, at the minute, and Tom’s doing a great job. He’s captained the younger age group sides previously; we’ve worked together for a long time now. We need to keep developing and growing as a group and I think Tom’s a pivotal part of that.”
He went on to compare the leadership roles within the squad to a couple well-known film characters:
“But what we’re trying to learn amongst the group as well is it’s not just about leadership. We can’t have 23 Darth Vader’s and no Stormtroopers. Equally, we don’t want 23 Stormtroopers and no Darth Vader’s, do we?”
It seems like the Sale Sharks lock is a natural-born leader, when asked whether he does anything consciously to become a better leader or if it is entirely natural, Burrow said:
“I think it is the way I am. I like to think I’m pretty confident and outgoing and like to take something by the scruff of the neck and crack on. I don’t think there’s anything particularly in me that that says, ‘Right, you’re a captain. You’re a leader’. I think it’s just the way I am.
“There’s lots of practice you can do to improve the way you convey your message to the group, the actions you take to the group. But I think that sort of blended with the person you are helps you be in the best position.”
Keeping up momentum from such a strong first performance is always going to be difficult; head coach Mapletoft shared an insight into what the mood is like in the camp now:
“We were good. It was a good result. I think the performance in the conditions was decent. A couple of areas were identified that we need to fix up for this week, which we’ve addressed during the course of the training. And yeah, all set for Friday night.”
The head coach spoke about the dangers that his next opposition might have:
“If you give them front foot ball and counterattacking opportunities, transition moments, that’s just their DNA. That’s how they play from a very early age, and we have to be mindful of that, try and limit those opportunities as much as we can and impose our game on them. I think we did that in different ways last year, but this is a new group of players, with different dynamics. We’ve done our prep, and we’re ready to go and looking forward to it.”
One of Burrow’s teammates at Sale is scrum-half Dom Hanson, who is on the bench for the France game, having never appeared at U20s Test level before.
When asked about the qualities of the new man, as well as his thoughts on a teammate being called up, the young lock said:
“Absolutely buzzing for Dom. He was really good, really quick in the warmup games. He played really well at the 19s game out in Italy. I think Dom brings an element of surprise and quality to the game at nine. He’s electric. Once he’s gone, you aren’t touching him, and he’s got quality feed on the base as well. So, I’m really excited for Dom. I think he’s worked hard for his opportunity. So, you know, it’s just got to go out there enjoy himself and play the way we know he can.”
Burrow has been excelling recently, and he reflected on his personal performance against Ireland:
“I was really excited to go and play in Cork, a brilliant place to play, a loud crowd, a strong Ireland team. I think it had the recipe for a great game and as a player you want to play the biggest and the best games available to you. So, I was excited for the challenge. I think I found the actual game sort of reasonably within my expectations. I needed to be physical; I need to be quick. That lived up to both of those things, but I think we’re still able to impose our game plan at times, probably not as much as we like, but I found the game as expected, really.”
