"We're going for the rest of them" – Fin Baxter wants England to rack up more Six Nations wins
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England prop Fin Baxter could not believe the noise that erupted out of the Allianz Stadium, as his side achieved the unexpected win against France. Baxter played a pivotal role in England’s second half campaign, as the Harlequins loose-head contributed a try to the score-board in the lead up to a famous Six Nations victory over Les Bleus.
Baxter muscled his way over the whitewash off the back of a rolling maul, and joked as to how the short-range skill-set is the one piece missing from the arsenal of his Quins teammate Marcus Smith. “I pointed out to Marcus at the end if he adds that to his game that's him complete.”
It was smiles all round for the England team, after Elliot Daly’s last ditch dramatics helped edge England within touching distance of France, before Fin Smith crucial conversion chalked up the ‘W’ for Steve Bothwick’s side.
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“That roar at the end was incredible. I'm going to remember that for a very long time.” Baxter added. “Just like with the close results, we did make sure we didn’t get too low with those and we’re going to enjoy tonight, but we’re not going to get too high because again we weren’t perfect and there are lots of things need to work on. We got the right side of it this time.”
The win for England feels long overdue in the eyes of their supporters, as Borthwick’s team broke their deadlock of six consecutive defeats to tier one opposition. England suffered three losses in a row to the All Blacks across the latest Summer and Autumn Series, before both Australia and South Africa each achieved respective wins at the home of English Rugby.
Baxter is delighted to have the win in the bag, but expects plenty of work to be done in the current fallow week with Scotland on the horizon. The prop spoke directly on how England are not settling for the win over France, with the attention already swinging towards achieving additional victories in the Six Nations. There are now three rounds left in the tournament, with England eyeing up the title, with a strong run-in against Scotland, Italy and Warren Gatland’s Wales.
“We'll still enjoy the win nonetheless, even if we’re playing next week and as a group we’re going to make sure that it’s not crazy. We haven’t achieved anything yet. Getting this win is very important. We’re not parking up after that. We’re going for the rest of them, and that’s that’s what we’ve been going with since I've been part of this team.”
“I’m just loving being part of this team, of course they (the defeats) are tough and especially when it was a few in a row. It was really gutting but being part of this team is something that I’ve wanted to do for my whole life. I wasn’t going to let that diminish that kind of achievement and the pride I have. But as you said the marquee win, the win that we’re going to look back on for a very long time, is really cool.”
The baby-faced bruiser was tasked with the tall order of scrummaging against Uini Atonio upon his replacement run-on, with the Harlequin arriving in the way of starting loose-head Ellis Genge. Baxter had a tough initial scrum against the 145 kilo behemoth from La Rochelle, as he gave away a set-piece penalty shortly after entering the fray. Baxter eyes this error up as a main area for his own personal improvement, as England embark on a fallow week in their Bagshot base of Pennyhill Park.
“This year’s definitely been a step up, with people not glossing over me. I proved myself in New Zealand that I’m an international rugby player, and no longer can I, as I did last year, just kind of fly under the radar into games and catch people by surprise. That’s not a thing anymore.
“It took me a little bit of getting used to that, everyone being switched on 100%. I'm back on it, which I’m really enjoying. It’s annoying today that my first involvement was a penalty against but that was some smarts by Atonio, it’s something I’ll learn.”
“As a front row our job is to scrum, it is the set piece and it is being very physical which is quite an easy thing to spot. That’s something that doesn’t change. But we’ve worked really well in the week together and we had a good week, both packs going at it, both front rows going at it and it showed today after that training.”
Despite the set-back against the Stade Rochelais tight-head, Baxter contributed a stellar effort from the bench, as Borthwick’s replacements elevated the overall performance a significant deal. Whilst the glory was bestowed to the try-scoring Elliot Daly, the likes of Ben Curry and Jamie George also had immense involvements, as the ‘finishers’ lived up to their billing and carried England home to victory.
“The bench goes on every time trying to make a positive impact, trying to bring energy and trying to lift.” Baxter explained. “Today we did it. We did that, we brought that lift. There’s not one key thing that’s changed at all, it’s all hundreds of small things but we made sure today that we did our role.”
Summing up, Baxter echoed Maro Itoje’s message from the post-match huddle, as the England skipper wasted no time in bringing success back to home soil. Baxter relayed what Itoje told the group, ahead of another big week of training in the Six Nations camp. “(Itoje said) That we’ve worked so hard and we finally got on the good end of a result, but we can’t get carried away with ourselves because we have still got work to do.”
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