There was a depressing inevitability about the events that led to the cancellation of England’s match against Barbarians. The only surprise is that it came so soon“Rugby, it’s different”. So read the caption accompanying a picture posted on social media of two opposing players sharing a beer after last week’s Champions Cup final. It was misguided at best and widely criticised for the smug attitude that continues to blight the professional game. Fast forward a week, to the colossal wreckage caused by the cancellation of England’s match against the Barbarians, and it can be said with certainty that rugby is different all right.In what other sport would professional players – a former national captain no less in Chris Robshaw –...
England’s coach has his favourites and one of his foibles is not always trusting Premiership form as a barometer When Andy Farrell named his Ireland squad last week, attention focused not on who had been selected but on the scrum-half, John Cooney, who had been omitted after being on the bench for Ireland’s three Six Nations matches this year.It was the same when Eddie Jones reshuffled the group of players he had assembled before Sunday’s match against the Barbarians at Twickenham. Rather than the call-up for two young players, Tom de Granville and Ollie Lawrence, the headlines were on Ben Spencer, another scrum-half who had been overlooked. Related: Daly out with mystery leg injury but Youngs in line for England...
Former England captain went through the rugby mill but came out the other side a better player and an unchanged manWatching Chris Robshaw play his last matches for Harlequins got me thinking about the first time I met him. It was early one winter morning in 2011, in a cafe near Twickenham. Six weeks earlier, England had embarrassed themselves at the World Cup in New Zealand. The fallout was long, and still going on, complicated by a series of leaks about what had gone wrong.Their captain, Lewis Moody, had already quit, and everyone was talking about who was going to take over from him. Tom Croft and Toby Flood were the two names that kept coming up. Then there was...
The England coach is fascinated by the way football teams use analytics but can raw data really give him the whole picture?Eddie Jones did not get where he is today by idly sitting around gazing at his navel. Perhaps the most telling line in his autobiography is the one where he outlines the basic trait every good coach needs to possess. ‘Curiosity is the heart of invention,’ he writes. ‘Whether you are talking to Pep Guardiola, Alex Ferguson or the person sitting next to you on the plane, you can always learn something.’ Related: World Rugby criticised by dozens of academics for trans women ban Continue reading...
Former England captain’s enlightening autobiography could loosen a few tongues among his less forthright successorsIt was always likely that Dylan Hartley’s soon-to-be published autobiography would cause a ripple or two. Few rugby players have managed to divide opinion so reliably or reinvent themselves so successfully; dull anonymity has rarely been the former England captain’s speciality. The initial passages to emerge from his book, The Hurt, are both forthright and striking.Perhaps most significant of all, however, is the harsh light Hartley shines on rugby itself. Not since Jonny Wilkinson’s slightly disturbing autobiography has a high-profile England player made his day job sound more wince-inducing. “My generation of players have been crash dummies for a sport in transition from semi-professionalism,” he writes,...