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500 school children watch as England stage first training in France
By Liam Heagney
Steve Borthwick’s England got down to business at the 2023 Rugby World Cup in France when they held their first pitch session in Le Touquet in front of an attendance of 500 schoolchildren on Friday afternoon.
Borthwick’s squad flew into the Hauts-de-France region on Thursday following a nightmare Summer Nations Series pockmarked by suspensions, injuries, defeats and a loss of public confidence in their rookie Test-level head coach who has been at the helm since last December.
After a seven-night stay in Le Touquet, England will fly south to Marseille next Thursday ahead of their September 9 World Cup opener against Argentina.
They have travelled across the Channel having won just once in their six most recent matches and that run of miserable form resulted in Borthwick quickly working his pack at training.
Most of the vision access section at the start of their training session at Stade d’Athletisme Ferdi Petit was dedicated to the head coach perfecting his team’s maul on a soft pitch that had to cope with much recent rain.
It was current Wallabies boss Eddie Jones, Borthwick’s predecessor, who last year nominated Le Touquet-Paris-Plage as the best place for England to prepare for their upcoming Pool D matches.
A welcome ceremony to the tournament will be staged for them on Saturday by local town officials, and Borthwick will then host his arrival media briefing on Monday.
That will be three days before he is due to name his match day 23 to face the Pumas at the start of a pool campaign that also has games versus Japan (in Nice), Chile and Samoa (both in Lille).
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Latest Comments
Yep NZ national u85 team is touring there atm I think (or just has).
Go to commentsWhat are they gonna do with the 500k and what does that achieve? They could dump the whole side and pick amateurs and save 10million, but what is that going to achieve?
The problem it feels like to me is I didn't hear what Gatland is going to do in order to win the 6N next year. How is he helping the problem. It just sounds like they're expecting miracles and for Gatland to turn around the national teams results, but what good is that when you're not fixing any of the problems and you'll just be back where you were when Gatland and the old players leave?
I think you are totally wrong in your stance. Wales abosolutely need to spend that 500k by investing in their future, it just doesn't sound like theyre giving Gatland any more resources to do it with. They're not using that 500k very well.
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