England U20s: Attack coach Dave Walder and back row Kane James preview Scotland battle in U20 Six Nations

02/20/2025 04:36 AM

England U20s host Scotland on Friday at Kingston Park in Newcastle, looking to extend their Six Nations record to three wins from three following victories against Ireland and France.  Exeter Chiefs back row Kane James and attack coach Dave Walder previewed the clash. 

Walder, from Newcastle and a former Newcastle Falcons player, gave an insight into the impact of his upbringing in the north-east on his coaching style. 

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He said: "I was brought up watching Newcastle United in the 1990s under Kevin Keegan. It was the entertaining style. And you know, from the north-east originally, and I believe that people in the north-east go to sport to be entertained. And how do you entertain someone? First of all, it’s by winning.

“That’s what everybody wants, to win. But unfortunately, the nature of the world at the moment is a pretty competitive environment, so I believe you have to win but by playing the right style." 

Reflecting on whether they have been able to play in this style so far in the competition, the former fly-half gave an honest assessment. 

"Unfortunately, the weather conditions haven’t quite played ball, but even in the pretty dire weather we’ve had really good intent to play at the right times. And I think against the French, we controlled the game. We lacked a lot of accuracy at key moments , but I thought we were always in control of the game." 

With a week away from playing in the U20 Six Nations, players are usually up to all sorts. Unfortunately for Kane James, he had an issue that meant he could not do too much. Talking about his week off, he said: 

"I was actually concussed. I got concussed on Friday. So, I was doing almost nothing. I did a few spin outs on the bike, a couple of gym sessions, and a couple of runs. 

He chose to look on the positive side of his lack of ability to do much though. 

"I saw the boys were getting stuck into training at Chiefs this week. So yeah, it was quite nice to just step back and just almost do nothing." 

With Walder being a new addition to the coaching staff, only being in the role since January, some may not know what his exact style is. He explained how he communicates to the players: 

"It’s the language I use, how I set training sessions up, chatting to the other coaches to make sure that at certain times we change the pictures and challenge the players’ decision making. Because ultimately, a lot of these guys, in the scheme of things, they’ve got relatively young rugby training ages.

“Because, they’re all at the start of their careers, and it’s about maybe adding either improving their decision making in terms of the number of decisions to get right, or it’s make them make the decision a little bit faster, or it’s actually adding another option in. Now, normally adding an option just confuses the situation, but at times, you need to see where push the boundaries.  

"So, I guess I try and set training up to challenge the decision-making side of it, and try and set it up so that they make more good decisions and bad decisions, and so they see the positivity around it, and they get the confidence from it. And then I make the decisions a little bit harder. It is a very, very holistic approach to it, I’d say." 

As a player, he got four Test caps for England as well as spending over ten years in the Premiership with Falcons and Wasps.  Naturally, his playing experiences have impacted his coaching. He gave a breakdown of this: 

"All of the environments I’ve been in and seen bits and pieces of, you borrow an idea here or borrow an idea there, and you try and put it to the group you’re working with. And you’ve got to try and work out what you think is best for your group, but true to your philosophies. And I say my philosophy is around entertaining, attacking, scoring tries, but ultimately it needs to be successful as well." 

Moving between club and international rugby poses its challenges due to the different styles of play between setups. James gave his view on the differences between Chiefs and England: "Some of the stuff is quite different, but I think in terms of defense, it’s very similar. So that’s quite easily transferable. But look, maybe set piece and maybe a bit of attack can be slightly different. I think that’s the challenge I really enjoy." 

Walder then offered his assessment of the differences from a coaching perspective: 

"(Unlike club rugby) in this setup, you’re not recruiting for a style. You’ve got the best players, and it’s how quickly you can get them all singing off the same hymn sheet. I think you’ve got to work out what is the most important thing and prioritise everything. 

"I’ve probably got a list of 15 things that I would love to do, but reality is I can only do three of them. So, what are the most important three? And I think that’s a really good challenge of your coaching skills to be able to isolate it and you get it wrong, but you’ve got to recognise quickly you’ve got it wrong and then try and get back on track." 

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