Shanahan praises England Counties XV ethos
ENGLAND Counties XV coach James Shanahan praised the ethos of the flagship representative team of community rugby in England after they had eased to a 37-3 win in their first-ever meeting with Scotland Club XV at Fylde.
England Counties ran in six tries with the most popular scored by flanker Evan Stewart and replacement scrum half Jordan Dorrington from the host club.
Shanahan works as head coach of Greene King IPA Championship club Plymouth Albion but he is proud of his links with the England Counties XV which is selected from players playing for clubs outside of the top two tiers in English club rugby.
“It’s the opportunity to put an England shirt on which they are never likely to do at the top, top level,” Shanahan said.
“It’s the chance to work in a full-time environment with professional coaches and the chance to play with players they face every week in and week out in the National Leagues.
“But we represent a lot of rugby players. You take out the top two leagues and there are another ten leagues underneath and that is what we represent.
“There are a lot of players out there who would love to put that jersey on and be playing out there. I know there are guys who have played before who are bugging the management to be selected because it means that much to them.
“They love the experience and I love it as coach. To come in get a group of 23 players, put something together and let the players express themselves on the field. It think this experience is brilliant.”
Shanahan stepped up from assistant coach to take charge of the Counties’ preparations for the Scotland match after head coach Steve Pope was unable to travel for family reasons.
Paul Arnold, the Fylde lock who was recently appointed forwards coach of the England Counties Under 20 side, was called up to fill the gap left by Pope’s unavailability and his efforts impressed Shanahan.
“We’ve had regular text messages and phone calls to see how the squad was going. Me and Popey work pretty well so it didn’t really affect things massively,” Shanahan said.
“It’s good that Paul Arnold stepped in, he’s well known to most of the players and he’s a Fylde lad as well and he has done really well.
“He has bought into it. He’s an ex-Counties player as well and he was as keen as mustard to help out on the coaching.”
England Counties will now start their preparations for their next match against France Federale XV in Perigeux on March 20.
The Counties were beaten by a point by the same opponents in Nevers last season but they will travel back to France buoyed with confidence after denying Scotland a try in an impressive performance that was capped by a man-of-the-match display by new captain Billy Johnson, the Old Albanians blindside flanker.
“I thought they were outstanding. The most pleasing thing was their defence. Not to concede a try in a Test match is a credit to them and their character, the intensity and the work rate they showed,” Shanahan said.
“It’s a new defensive system but they all bought into it. First half we didn’t have a lot of ball, but second half we got our off-load game going, we out-worked them round the corner kept the ball really well made some good inroads and we could probably have had three or four more tries.
“But to score six tries was great and I’m really happy. Scotland beat Ireland by five points so to beat them by 30-odd points was a great performance.
“I thought Billy was brilliant. I know him from Old Albanians and he was outstanding. I thought Seb Rodwell coming off the bench made a great impact, in fact I thought the whole bench made an impact, they all gave us something different.
“If I had to pick a man of the match it would probably be Billy. He was outstanding. I am very happy, we will enjoy that win and look forward to France.”
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