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England drop Saxons name ahead of next month's revival of their A team
By PA
The England A team will no longer be known as the Saxons after the Rugby Football Union decided the name is inappropriate. The RFU believes the title, which was introduced in 2006 before that year's Churchill Cup, is out of date and fails to reflect the diversity in English rugby.
England A will play their Scotland counterparts in Leicester on June 27 in their first outing since touring South Africa five years ago. “We have chosen to revert to the traditional name of England A for this fixture against Scotland A as a better representation of our team today,” an RFU spokesperson said about the end to the use of the Saxons name.
The move comes after outgoing RFU chairman Andy Cosslett stated that Twickenham must “step up its efforts to improve diversity and inclusion across our game”.
Last month it was announced that an independent diversity and inclusion advisory group overseen by former England and Lions wing Ugo Monye was being set up. The RFU also distanced itself from the Swing Low, Sweet Chariot anthem sung in support of the England team at Twickenham in recognition of its origins in slavery.
The England A team outing versus the Scottish, which is scheduled for the day after the Gallagher Premiership final, will take place prior to the two July Tests in which Eddie Jones' side will take on the USA and Canada at Twickenham.
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Who got the benefits out of Schmidt, Lowe, Aki, and Gibson Park?
Go to commentsI’m all for speeding up the game. But can we be certain that the slowness of the game contributed to fans walking out? I’m not so sure. Super rugby largely suffered from most fans only being able to, really, follow the games played in their own time zone. So at least a third of the fan base wasn’t engaged at any point in time. As a Saffer following SA teams in the URC - I now watch virtually every European game played on the weekend. In SR, I wouldn’t be bothered to follow the games being played on the other side of the world, at weird hours, if my team wasn’t playing. I now follow the whole tournament and not just the games in my time zone. Second, with New Zealand teams always winning. It’s like formula one. When one team dominates, people lose interest. After COVID, with SA leaving and Australia dipping in form, SR became an even greater one horse race. Thats why I think Japan’s league needs to get in the mix. The international flavor of those teams could make for a great spectacle. But surely if we believe that shaving seconds off lost time events in rugby is going to draw fans back, we should be shown some figures that supports this idea before we draw any major conclusions. Where are the stats that shows these changes have made that sort of impact? We’ve measured down to the average no. Of seconds per game. Where the measurement of the impact on the fanbase? Does a rugby “fan” who lost interest because of ball in play time suddenly have a revived interest because we’ve saved or brought back into play a matter of seconds or a few minutes each game? I doubt it. I don’t thinks it’s even a noticeable difference to be impactful. The 20 min red card idea. Agreed. Let’s give it a go. But I think it’s fairer that the player sent off is substituted and plays no further part in the game as a consequence.
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