England head coach Steve Borthwick has enlisted the help of referee Christophe Ridley (Image: Getty)
have reportedly enlisted the help of referee Christophe Ridley to boost their chances of glory.
is not the first head coach to make such a move. South Africa and France employ former referees Jaco Peyper and Jerome Garces respectively as part of their full-time staff to help with discipline issues.
But England’s case does stand out due to Ridley being an active referee who is taking charge of matches at this year’s tournament. The 31-year-old officiated Ireland’s win over Wales last weekend and he has been attending England training twice a week to advise them about officiating trends.
According to , England’s ‘secret weapon’ goes over incidents from the previous game at the start of each training week and talks them through with the squad. Ridley is also believed to be consulting with captain Maro Itoje about how best to interact with referees.
Borthwick is reportedly the driving force behind the idea of bringing Ridley on board. And it seems to have worked, with England boasting one of the best disciplinary records of any Six Nations team this year.
The boss : “I have been delighted with the players’ attitude towards team discipline. The fact that we are regularly winning ‘the discipline battle’ is not by chance. Players and coaches alike now put a significant emphasis on this part of our preparations.
Christophe Ridley has been coaching England through the latest refereeing trends (Image: Getty)
“We continually educate and update the team around law implications and refereeing trends. Christopher Ridley recently joined us in Spain at our pre-tournament camp. His extended opportunity to be in contact with the team provided a great opportunity to get a clear understanding of how we anticipated the game might be officiated this Six Nations.
“At the end of the day, however, it is because we have made the issue of discipline so important that I think the players have responded so well, so often. They understandably take pride in their penalty count.”
All three of England’s matches at this year’s Six Nations have been tight affairs. They kicked things off with a 27-22 defeat in Ireland, and have since beaten both France and Scotland by a single point.
Marcus Smith’s kicking accuracy, and Finn Russell’s lack thereof, were major factors in Saturday’s win over the Scots, who outscored England by three tries to one but drew blanks for conversions and penalties.