'Billows of smoke, then all of a sudden it lit up in a huge fire'
Eddie Jones has spoken about the Tuesday night fire drama that resulted in his England Six Nations squad evacuating from their seafront hotel in Brighton and holding a team meeting in a nearby pub before checking into a different hotel to spend the night. Ahead of the championship opener away to Scotland on February 5, Jones opted to begin preparations with a week-long gathering on the English south coast for his squad before the location switches next week to the national team training centre at Pennyhill Park.
England had spent their Tuesday morning on Brighton beach doing team-building exercises and their Six Nations squad were due to have a team communications meeting that evening when a fire broke out through a manhole on the street outside the Harbour Hotel on the King’s Road.
The emergency caused the hotel to be evacuated, leaving the players to hold their planned meeting in a nearby pub before alternative accommodation was sourced for the night.
“The players were getting ready for a team communications session which was all about them talking about their goals and purpose and just getting to know each other a little bit better,” explained England boss Jones on Wednesday about the drama that unfolded the previous evening for his Six Nations squad.
“There were billows of smoke coming out of a manhole and then all of a sudden it lit up in a huge fire, like a bomb fire came out of the manhole so we had to evacuate the hotel. At one stage we were going to go to Cotswold and buy some sleeping bags but we have got a fantastic logistics manager in Charlotte Gibbons who arranged accommodation at Hilton.
“The players and the staff ate separately because of the short circumstance and we got through the night and we are here today, mate. We are hopefully back in the hotel by midday and the boys will start doing a gym session this morning at Brighton College.
“They [the players] weren’t close at all. It [the fire] was outside the hotel so there was no risk to any of the players,” continued Jones, adding how the players improvised by relocating their scheduled meeting elsewhere. “They ended up having it a pub and Maro (Itoje) took responsibility for it.”
Jones enthused how he liked what sudden disruption does for his England squad in terms of improving its adaptability. “Everyone had to adapt, we have had to change our programme today, the players had to sleep in maybe uncomfortable beds last night and they have got to get on with it today.
“We enjoy those sorts of things. Every time we do it we get a little bit better at it. We had a similar situation in 20019 with the typhoon at the World Cup where we had to move hotels quickly so the guys have been in that situation before helped lead the way.”
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wel the crusaders were beaten by a queensland reds side that hadnt beaten them at home since 1999 and queensland reds partied like it was 1999
Go to commentsThink it was a great defensive performance by Northampton. They didn't have stage fright in the first half, the Nienaber defense smothered them. They limited Leinster to 15-3 in the first half. It could have been over by then. A great try from Leinster in the start of the second half looked to have sealed it. But Byrne missed another conversion. Northampton started trying little kicks behind the Leinster wingers. Leinster messed one and Smith brilliantly made the conversion. Leinster decided to tighten the game after Byrne missed a straight forward penalty. A few errors got NH into the 22 and they scored and converted with a few minutes left. Another brilliant steal from Lawes saw NH have a final attack which was turned over by Conan. A classic semi final. World record attendance of 82,300. Leinsters 3 week preparation warranted for this one.
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