1
England's undercooked Championship players defiant: 'It's not like we have been sat on a physio bed'
By PA
Owen Farrell insists England’s Saracens contingent will race out of the blocks when the Guinness Six Nations begins against Scotland at Twickenham on February 6.
Only Billy Vunipola has played since the triumphant Autumn Nations Cup final against France in early December, the number eight making one appearance in a second-tier competition.
Farrell, Maro Itoje, Jamie George, Mako Vunipola and Elliot Daly have been inactive, but England’s captain insists the time has been put to good use.
“We have seen it as an opportunity to get some good training under our belts,” Farrell said.
“Over the past few years we haven’t had much of an opportunity for a pre-season to get ourselves some good training. So this time has been massive.
“We’ve not been injured, we have been working hard off the field with pre-season stuff – running and gym – to make sure we are strong enough.
“Then we’ve had a ball in our hands. It’s not like we have been sat on a physio bed. We have been training for this.
“We are doing all we can do to be in the best position to cope with match fitness. We have 10 days to prepare and the rugby training comes into that.”
Head coach Eddie Jones views the opportunity to train without playing as invaluable.
“The Saracens boys, over the last five years, have played six seasons of rugby,” Jones said.
“For them to actually have a pre-season now is a God-send. They will come back in much better condition than they’d normally be in at this time of year.”
- Duncan Bech
Trending on RugbyPass
2
All Blacks XV player ratings vs Munster
3
Suaalii strikes awe as Wallabies lose midfielder
4
Scott Robertson responds about handling errors
5
Latest Comments
Nah, that just needs some more variation. Chip kicks, grubber stabs, all those. Will Jordan showed a pretty good reason why the rush was bad for his link up with BB.
If you have an overlap on a rush defense, they naturally cover out and out and leave a huge gap near the ruck.
It also helps if both teams play the same rules. ARs set the offside line 1m past where the last mans feet were😅
Go to commentsYeah nar, should work for sure. I was just asking why would you do it that way?
It could be achieved by outsourcing all your IP and players to New Zealand, Japan, and America, with a big Super competition between those countries raking it in with all of Australia's best talent to help them at a club level. When there is enough of a following and players coming through internally, and from other international countries (starting out like Australia/without a pro scene), for these high profile clubs to compete without a heavy australian base, then RA could use all the money they'd saved over the decades to turn things around at home and fund 4 super sides of their own that would be good enough to compete.
That sounds like a great model to reset the game in Aus. Take a couple of decades to invest in youth and community networks before trying to become professional again. I just suggest most aussies would be a bit more optimistic they can make it work without the two decades without any pro club rugby bit.
Go to comments