Invisible man Shaw turns out to be new Johnno

13 April 2012

Simon Shaw won the ultimate accolade from England on Monday, inspiring their coaches to speak of him in the same breath as Martin Johnson.

The invisible man of the last World Cup has finally begun to make a serious impact on the global stage, even if it has taken him 14 years to become an overnight success.

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Powerhouse: Shaw avoids another Australian tackle

As their World Cup bandwagon rolled into Paris for Saturday night's semi-final against France, England paid tribute to Shaw's 'towering' role at the heart of their pulverising pack.

'We've not had a natural successor to Johnson, someone able to bring some of the same skills but we have now,' said forwards coach John Wells. 'We certainly saw Simon's ability to play the ball out of the tackle, along with his support and tackling skills, which added up to another tremendous performance. All he wanted was the opportunity to play consistently well week in, week out.'

During a three-year period at the height of Sir Clive Woodward's reign, Wasps lock Shaw started one match in 42 — the losing Grand Slam decider against Ireland in 2001.

Until this summer he had been excluded from 13 Tests in a row as a procession of second rows were chosen ahead of him — Danny Grewcock, Louis Deacon, Tom Palmer, Ben Kay, Martin Corry, Chris Jones, Steve Borthwick and Alex Brown.

For the first time since making the squad in 1993, Shaw is an automatic choice after an unprecedented run of seven matches out of eight. When called into the training squad in June, Shaw, 34, let it be known in his own polite fashion that he had done enough hanging around to last a lifetime.

'I said at the outset that it would be nice not to have a game here and there, but a run of games,' he said. 'I'd given England everything in the past and not been rewarded with selection over a period of time. Myself, Andy Gomarsall and Mark Regan have been in and out of the squad for donkeys years so it's all the nicer to put

PETER JACKSON reveals how it has taken Simon Shaw 14 years to become an overnight hit for England on the World Cup stage . . .

in a display like that in beating Australia. I'm happy with the way I'm playing and contributing enough to merit selection.'

England will today begin cranking up the pack's Grumpy Factor ahead of a severe scrummaging test against France.

'If we were grumpy and horrible before the Australia match, then I want us to be grumpy and horrible this week, too,' said coach Wells. 'We're going to have to be, so we'll make them read all those critical things that have been written about them. I can understand it because we hadn't performed at the required level before last weekend.

'We owed ourselves and our fans a big game and the frustration has been that it's taken so long to come. It was an outstanding performance and the challenge is to repeat it against a better team. The French are a crack unit. They wouldn't have beaten New Zealand without being the side they are. We know what we're up against.'

Scrum coach Graham Rowntree, a champion grump in a 16-year career with Leicester, England and the Lions, spoke of the power of the prop who has succeeded him in the Test front row — Andrew Sheridan. Manofthe-match against Australia, his next opponent is veteran Pieter de Villiers.

'Sheri has not played like that before for England, which is not to say we've been disappointed,' said Rowntree. 'He's played well in the past but not that well. The test of a great player is to do it week in, week out, like Martin Johnson. Sheri has to do it again — and if he keeps doing it he will be a world-class player.

'If you're going to beat France, you've got to take the energy out of their scrum. They've a wily old pack and we're going to have to get our game back up there. A bit of grumpiness won't do us any harm. We can do grumpy.'

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