The former Wasps flanker has had a rough couple of years but roared back with a standout performance at TwickenhamNearly two and a half years ago England claimed a dominant victory here against Georgia in the best-forgotten Autumn Nations Cup. It was a match memorable for little other than England handing first Test starts to Jack Willis and Ollie Lawrence and proceeding to maul their opposition to death. So much has changed in the ensuing years and months – not least both players losing their jobs – yet equally, there are considerable parallels to this victory over Italy that represent a smallish step in the right direction for England under Steve Borthwick.Both Willis – who was making his first start...
There were glimpses of attacking promise, but the new coach watched his side lose their fourth straight Six Nations openerTwickenham felt a little different on Saturday afternoon. It was the same walk from the station, by the same stalls on the Whitton Road, past the same faces, under the same sort of sombre February weather, to watch an England team made up, in the large part, of the same names that have been on and off the team-sheets here for the last few years. It was the air around the place that had changed. People were unsure exactly what to expect from the afternoon ahead, except that, whatever else, it would at least be something unlike what they’ve seen from...
Steve Borthwick’s men will run out on Saturday in one of the worst rugby shirts of all time. It doesn’t have to be this wayThe comedian Robert Newman once discussed why England’s football team wear white. Having invented football, he said, the English got to pick colours first. So they chose white, freighted with meaning and power, pure and existential.Newman didn’t cite the greatest novel of all, Moby-Dick, but I will. Herman Melville wrote a whole chapter about white, the colour of his whale. He wrote of the “certain nameless terror” instilled by visions in white, whether sharks, bears, Death on his pale horse or even Iron Mike Teague. I might have added the last one. Continue reading...
From potential ‘new coach bounce’ to the power of Ireland and France, championship can raise interest before the World CupIt was hard to put your finger on it but there was a different feel to this year’s Six Nations launch. Perhaps it was the Netflix cameras around every corner seeking to project rugby to a wider global audience. Maybe it had something to do with Eddie Jones no longer being around to stir the media pot. There was even a solo acoustic guitarist serenading the hacks as they munched their lunch, which was unquestionably a first.Or maybe, just maybe, it was a sign of a professional sport making a concerted effort to raise its game. One by one the head...