Saracens’ Theo Dan says he is keen to be involved in England’s 2024 Six Nations Championship campaign after helping secure bronze medal at the Rugby World Cup in France, writes Ziad Chaudry.
England ended their campaign with a tight 26-23 victory over Argentina in Paris last Friday, before defending champions South Africa retained the Webb Ellis Cup after narrowly holding off New Zealand 12-11.
And all of England's points came from Saracens players, as Dan and Ben Earl saw their tries converted by clubmate Owen Farrell, who also landed four penalties to see off the Pumas, whose points came from Tomas Cubelli, Santiago Carreras, Emiliano Boffelli and Nicolas Sanchez, for a second time.
The two teams had met in their opening group fixture in Marseille where England won 27-10, before going on to miss out on a fifth final appearance by the Springboks.
Sarries duo Maro Itoje and Jamie George also played their part in England’s bronze-medal triumph while new clubmates Lucio Cinti and Juan Martin Gonzalez appeared for the South Americans.
Dan, who plays at hooker, charged down a kick from Argentina’s fly-half Carreras to score England’s second try under the posts on 44 minutes.
And he was pleased to leave the French capital with a bronze medal, especially given the poor run of results England produced going into the tournament.
"I was speaking to Ellis Genge in the changing rooms and to be honest, probably looking back at our warm-up games we weren't there at all,” Dan told World Rugby.
“We were disjointed as a team, our performances weren't good enough. So if you rewind the clocks two or three months and say you got a bronze medal, you're third in the world, you go toe-to-toe in a game you probably should have seen out, we'd probably have bitten your arm off for that.
"But it’s such a polarising emotion. We are obviously delighted to get the bronze, it means a lot to us, it means a lot to get the medal for everyone back home who supported us, to not come away from this World Cup with nothing. But ultimately it isn't the medal we wanted.”
The 22-year-old is now hoping England head coach Steve Borthwick, the former Saracens lock, will keep faith and feature him in his forthcoming Six Nations squad. England open their campaign in Italy on February 3.
"I'll go home with a bit more hunger to be involved in the Six Nations, to play in these big games because it's brilliant to be part of them," added Dan.
Fellow hooker George, 33, was certainly impressed with Dan’s tremendous contribution last Friday.
"His first lineout throw - back, double tops and that shows how he's developing,” he said.
“You see a young man who is resilient, athletic, very powerful and I think he'll be in this England squad for a very long time."
George was also delighted with England’s bronze medal and insists progress has been made since Borthwick took over the top job from Eddie Jones, who had two spells as technical advisor at Saracens, 11 months ago.
"I'm delighted for the players who have worked so hard,” added George.
“We won six games out of seven and lost one game by one point to the world champions which shows the progress of the team.
"I always believed we would be right for the tournament. Some challenging decisions were made but we were clear that the World Cup isn't played in August.
"Playing finals games is important. We want to win the gold medal. That wasn't to be but having finals experience has been important and will be important going forward."
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