Frank Lampard dreams of developing Chelsea into a team with the “inspirational” qualities of England’s rugby players.
The Blues boss has been blown away by the standards set by Eddie Jones’ side in Japan and will watch their World Cup final against South Africa ahead of Saturday’s Premier League game with Watford.
Lampard was last week immersed in England’s sensational semi-final triumph over defending champions New Zealand while in a hotel preparing for Chelsea’s 4-2 success at Burnley.
Frank Lampard was impressed by England’s win over New Zealand (Adam Davy/PA)
The 41-year-old is eager for Jones’ men to return home victorious and believes their drive and determination provide a shining example to his squad.
“I’m certainly watching it. We were watching it last week in Burnley in the hotel,” said Lampard.
“I thought it was some of the most inspirational sport I’ve seen in a long, long time in terms of bravery, desire, effort and talent. I thought it was brilliant.
“It’s what we all strive for as managers to have a group looking as committed as they were and hopefully will be tomorrow.
Get FourFourTwo Newsletter
The best features, fun and footballing quizzes, straight to your inbox every week.
A photo posted by on
“Huge support for them, I wish them well, we’ll be supporting them heavily from our hotel.”
Lampard, who has limited rugby knowledge, initially planned to watch the New Zealand match with members of his coaching staff before that plan was scuppered by a bizarre technical problem.
He ended up tuning in alone and felt that viewing experience allowed him a greater appreciation of the game.
“We actually went downstairs to watch it in the breakfast room and we couldn’t get ITV – can you believe it?”, he said.
“Really weird, we had Sky Sports on the night before and couldn’t get ITV, so I went back to the room and watched it with a coffee, which was actually probably better. I could just focus and watch.
“I’m not absolutely up on every element of rugby, I never played rugby at school but sometimes I think you can watch a sport and just sense what is going on in terms of the emotions and attributes of a team.
“The quality is obviously there but what they gave, it was like a white brick wall of defence, inspiring stuff.”
Thank you for reading 5 articles this month* Join now for unlimited access
FourFourTwo was launched in 1994 on the back of a World Cup that England hadn’t even qualified for. It was an act of madness… but it somehow worked out. Our mission is to offer our intelligent, international audience access to the game’s biggest names, insightful analysis... and a bit of a giggle. We unashamedly love this game and we hope that our coverage reflects that.
