Taking revenge on teams who beat them in 2018, England have shown no mercy against Ireland and FranceThis Six Nations is starting to feel like a slasher flick, with England ticking off their victims one by one. They are taking bloody revenge on everyone who beat them in 2018, Ireland last weekend and now France. This was another pitiless performance.The idea France might surprise them, and everyone else, was shattered in the opening 60 seconds with a couple of nightmare tackles. Yoann Huget ran smack into both Vunipolas. He may as well have burst in on the Krays in the back room of the Blind Beggar. Then Guilhem Guirado was splattered by Courtney Lawes. Guirado coughed up the ball like...
Specialist selected to leave Jack Nowell sitting on the sidelines after being trusted by Eddie Jones for the big one in DublinEddie Jones is the ultimate tinkerman. He does not make major changes when England lose but at the same time he always keeps things fresh, even when they have a performance like they did against Ireland. I can’t think of a single time he has named an unchanged team and so it comes as no surprise he has tweaked his side more than expected to play France.You have to feel for Jack Nowell. He was given a golden ticket against Ireland and anyone who is trusted like that must be extremely valuable. Now he has effectively got a match...
Freddie Burns’s showboating blunder that cost Bath the match is a reminder to players to stop behaving like 12-year-oldsAt least Freddie Burns is in good company. Virtually every sport, at some stage, has produced a fall guy whose ill-advised showboating has gone viral and reminded us all of the value of humility. For Burns read Leon Lett of the Dallas Cowboys, guilty of a similar error in the 1993 Super Bowl, or the great American jockey Bill Shoemaker, who stood up in his stirrups to celebrate victory on Gallant Man in the 1957 Kentucky Derby only to be misjudge the finishing line and finish second.The word “showboat” came from the United States where gaudy river steamers used to act as...
Defeat of Clermont in European Champions Cup owed as much to team ethos as individual flair – Mark McCall’s side pulled together when going got toughChris Ashton stumbled slightly when he was asked why he was leaving Saracens for Toulon at the end of the season. The most direct of runners took a circuitous route as he pondered the answer to a question which was inviting him to explain why he was swapping the dominant club in Europe for the one they had supplanted and which was on its third head coach of the campaign.Ashton, like David Strettle two years ago, is not so much leaving Saracens as England, frustrated at his international isolation and two long bans in the...