Here are the latest rugby headlines on Monday, October 31.
Former All Black slams 'predictable' New Zealand
All Blacks fly-half Carlos Spencer has criticised New Zealand after they laboured to a narrow 38-31 triumph over Japan one week out from facing Wales.
While it was a hugely impressive performance by the Brave Blossoms, Ian Foster’s men struggled ahead of this weekend's clash with Wales in Cardiff. Afterwards, Spencer voiced his frustrations with the All Blacks' attack.
“So predictable around our attack, it’s frustrating,” Spencer told Sky Sports. “We’re one-dimensional, our attack is 90 per cent inside the 15s, we’ve got no options off our back door, we’re so direct. Scott McLeod said at half-time, he said ‘we want to go back to being direct’. I’m not sure that’s the answer. We tried to be direct but we’re actually making it easy for them defensively. We’ve just got to have a little bit more innovation around trying to have numbers off our back door with maybe another back door, and trying to attack down that 15-metre channel a bit more. Far too predictable."
He added: “I think you’ve got to [consider the disruptions] to a degree. Coaches and players have got to take a bit on their shoulders as well, because we’re a far better team than that and we’re far better individuals than that.
“I just think our mindset’s wrong. When we’ve got coaches talking about being direct after we’ve just spent 30 minutes being direct, we’ve got to have that ability to change in the moment. I’ve got the put the onus back on the players, they’ve got to start reading pitches and opportunities out on the pitch. They can’t reply on coaches getting those messages to them all the time. Our mindset's got to change, I think.”
England handed injury boost despite losing captain
Captain Courtney Lawes has been ruled out of England's match with Argentina at Twickenham on Sunday, but Eddie Jones has been handed a double injury boost.
Lawes is still experiencing symptoms after suffering a head injury in September and will not link up with the squad this week. However, Owen Farrell returns after a concussion suffered earlier this month. The 31-year-old will continue through the latter stages of the return-to-play process.
Another injury boost comes in the form of Jonny May, with the winger called up after recovering from a dislocated elbow in the space of two weeks.
Cheika ready for dual-code coaching commitments
Michael Cheika is unconcerned over the clash which will see his Argentina side play on the same weekend as Lebanon in the Rugby League World Cup.
The former Wallabies boss was committed to taking charge of Lebanon in last year's World Cup, before the tournament was then delayed by 12 months. Since then, he has taken on the Argentina job in union, but remained loyal to the Cedars, who he has guided to the quarter-final of the 13-man game's World Cup. They face Australia on Friday in Huddersfield, before Argentina take on England at Twickenham on Sunday.
“We’ve just got to work out how we get it done and make sure we try to do both things really well, and I’m sure we’ll find a way,” Cheika told reporters. “We’ve been hoping for this week for a while and now it’s here, I’ve got to make sure I get across it and make sure I do justice to both teams. It’s probably going to be one day here, one day there. Everything has to be nailed down here first because we’re in a World Cup and it’s extremely important.
“We’ve done a lot of preparation work with the coaches from Argentina. They were here from Sunday through Wednesday with the team last week. We had permission to have a camp and I was able to spend a couple of days with them because we had days off.”
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