Mark Mapletoft has taken the strain off his World Championship looking England aspect by saying this week’s ultimate is just not the be-all and end-all for his group.
Sunday’s showpiece ultimate sees England tackle three-time reigning winners France in South Africa, with the Crimson Rose hoping to seize their first World Championship triumph since 2016.
Nevertheless, head coach Mapletoft factors to back-to-back senior World Cup champions South Africa and their shortcomings on the age-grade occasion, with the previous Gloucester, Harlequins and London Irish fly-half stressing it’s the experiences his males go on relatively than the titles they win at this age, that may form the remainder of their profession.
Mapletoft advised The Rugby Paper: “Video games like this are why you come into these tournaments but it surely’s not the defining purpose you do it. South Africa have received 4 World Cup’s out of the eight they’ve competed in and have solely received one Junior World Championship, so there may be clearly no correlation in any respect between the 2. Nevertheless, a whole lot of their gamers progress from their U20s into the senior setup like most international locations. It’s essential that the experiences they’ve alongside the way in which by way of testing themselves towards the very best gamers on the planet.”
England secured a long-awaited victory over Eire to achieve the ultimate, whereas France avenged their earlier loss to New Zealand.
England managed to realize a spot within the ultimate for the primary time since 2018, as they continued their profitable run this summer time courtesy of their 31-20 triumph on Sunday via tries by Ollie Allan, Craig Wright and Sean Kerr, who additionally transformed two of the scores and kicked his aspect to victory with 4 penalties, bringing his personal factors whole to 21 factors.
Eire’s 20 factors with tries from Oliver Coffey and Bryn Ward simply weren’t sufficient for the lads in inexperienced, as Mapletoft’s younger aspect proved an excessive amount of by breaking a streak of excessive scoring attracts between the 2 sides.
England come into the showpiece contest unbeaten in 2024 having made the ultimate on the DHL Stadium in Cape City, via victories over Fiji, Argentina and South Africa after their Six Nations title win earlier this 12 months.
A victory would end in a historic double for England however Mapletoft believes it’s unsuitable to evaluate the enhancing pathway on one singular end result.
He added: “No matter occurs on Friday you shouldn’t decide a complete programme on one explicit recreation. The lads’s pathway employees have labored extremely arduous within the final three to 4 years submit Covid to actually try to get it again to a degree the place we might be aggressive commonly in competitions towards the very best groups on the planet. We’re beginning to get the place we have to be however I actually wouldn’t decide a programme, it does present we are able to compete towards groups which have dominated Junior World Cup’s and Six Nations during the last 4 to 5 years, being France and Eire.”
By Ben Jaycock
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