Luther Burrell focused on unlocking Ireland's defence
Wednesday 18 February 2015 17:03, UK
Just a couple of hours after England’s Six Nations win over Italy, Luther Burrell was already busy brushing up on their next opponents.
The Northampton Saints centre won his ninth cap in the 47-17 success over the Azzurri, and then pulled up a pew in front of a television to watch Ireland grind out a victory against France.
England travel to Dublin on March 1 for a potential Grand Slam decider and they have won their last four fixtures against Ireland, with Burrell featuring in the 13-10 triumph at Twickenham last year.
However, Joe Schmidt’s men have responded to that defeat in impressive fashion, winning nine games in succession, and Burrell is glad of the two-week break so he can study how to unlock their organised defence.
JJ is a class act and is good to play with. We both offer something different and have struck up a good relationship both on and off the field.
“What a test that is going to be,” Burrell told Sky Sports. “They’re a team that’s playing well. I watched their win over France and they are a class outfit.
“We have got a lot of respect for Ireland; they’re a very tough team to play against. Not many teams go to Ireland and win. It’s good that we’ve got a couple of weeks to mentally get there and prepare for a huge game.”
Burrell has now featured in seven successive Six Nations games for England. Injury saw him miss out of selection for the autumn internationals, but a high number of midfield casualties led to the 27-year-old returning to the starting line-up for their impressive win over Wales.
Partnership
The Huddersfield native formed an effective partnership with Jonathan Joseph in Cardiff, although the latter was shifted to the wing against Italy following Mike Brown’s early withdrawal. They are both expected to be back in the centre at the Aviva Stadium and Burrell believes it is a combination that can flourish at international level.
“I think it’s going well,” he said. “JJ is a class act and is good to play with. We both offer something different and have struck up a good relationship both on and off the field. Chuck George Ford in there, who already has a relationship with JJ, and it slowly starts coming together.
“It’s still early days, we’re still learning about each other, but at the moment we have a nice balance and from both of our perspectives, we’re really enjoying playing with each other.
“Do I feel I warrant further selection at 12? I’ve no idea. I’d hope so but you can never get comfortable when there are a lot of good centres around.
“We have players back fit, such as Brad Barritt and Kyle Eastmond, Sam Burgess is just around the corner and Manu Tuilagi is on the verge on a return to full fitness.
“We can never get too comfortable. It’s just all about us playing well, living in the moment, doing the jersey proud and keep trying to give the coaches a selection headache.”
Impressed
Should Burrell and Joseph retain their places in Dublin, they will be coming up against another new centre partnership in Robbie Henshaw and Jared Payne. The pair have only played together on three occasions but Burrell has been impressed with what he has seen.
“I really do rate them. They’ve been strong in their opening two games so JJ, myself and the other centres are going to have a good look at them and try to pick up some traits of theirs. It’s going to be a huge battle for whoever manages to pull the jersey on.
“They’re class players but it’s not just those two; the whole Irish backline is a dangerous threat. With Johnny Sexton back fit, he’s going to get that backline ticking.”
Like Ireland, England have won their opening two Six Nations games but as far as Burrell is concerned there is plenty of room for improvement.
One particular area of frustration is England’s sluggish starts to matches. They conceded tries inside the opening seven minutes against Wales and Italy, and given the strength of Ireland’s defence, Burrell knows they need to hit the ground running in Dublin.
“We were quite disappointed to concede that early try (against Italy), which we also did against Wales,” he said. “But again, we managed to regroup and get ourselves back in the game.
“Italy were fantastic; they scored three good tries against us. We’re disappointed to let in any tries at Twickenham, but it was a credit to them and how they’ve progressed as a nation.
“It’s hard to hide from the fact that both Wales and Italy scored early against us, and from our perspective that’s very disappointing. That’s something that we’ll try to put right over the next two weeks, to stop teams from putting early points on the board.”
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