Brad Shields has a chance to make his mark in the No 6 jersey, while Maro Itoje could benefit with guidance from Ben YoungsPaul Gustard put on a brave face when addressing the fact that 14 tries have been conceded in the past two matches by claiming that more are being scored at international level and pointing out how England themselves have scored 11. Of more concern will be the 53 missed tackles across both matches. Gustard is a proud coach and certainly the defea last week will have hurt but it seems obvious that his imminent departure to join Harlequins has had an effect on the national squad. Gustard’s career highlight with England remains the second Test in the...
South Africa defeat exposes what Eddie Jones already knows: that rugby is faster and more fluid at international levelWhen the Premiership clubs raise the issue of Eddie Jones’s national squad training sessions this summer, bristling at a high attrition rate, Twickenham should show a video of England’s latest defeat against a nascent South Africa side who were able to recover from an appalling start because of an ability, honed in Super Rugby, to play at sustained pace.It was a Premiership player, the Sale scrum-half Faf de Klerk, who was his side’s catalyst, but the difference was at forward, where the Springboks retained their shape in the loose when a crazy game was at its most frenetic. England took an early...
Southern hemisphere sides dominated the 2015 World Cup in England but since then three out of the four have struggledMaro Itoje was in reflective mood as he sprawled himself in a chair that struggled to contain his 6ft 6in frame at England’s Bagshot base. “I have been in camp for only two days but you get the feeling something big is about to happen,” said the Lions and Saracens second‑row before Eddie Jones’s squad flew out to South Africa.He was talking about England’s odyssey but his words apply also to international rugby’s changing landscape. The last World Cup not only saw England become the first hosts to fail to make the knockout stage but, for the first time, the semi-finalists...
When Wales play South Africa at RFK Stadium in Washington on Saturday, a few well-known faces could be in the crowdWhen Candace Gingrich met Bill Clinton in 1996, half-brother Newt was two years into a political war with the White House. At a fundraising event, the president worked his way down a line of guests. When he got to the young Human Rights Campaign staffer with the Republican House Speaker for a relative, he got a welcome surprise. Related: HR McMaster on rugby: 'The warrior ethos is what a good team has' George W. Bush plays a little dirty rugby for Yale in 1966 pic.twitter.com/R1uPDXz4ABYou play rugby for yourself … but you also play for the other people with you...
It will be hard for Brad Shields to go straight from Super Rugby into the England side in South Africa but Ben Earl, Jack Willis and Jonny Hill lack experience in this company, tooEngland’s tour squad for South Africa reads like one of those wedding‑day rhymes for superstitious brides: something old, something new, something borrowed, something out of the blue. There is more than enough in Eddie Jones’s trousseau for the three-Test series next month to raise eyebrows in both hemispheres.Three names particularly stand out in a 34-man squad shaped partly by injury and Jones’s desire to rest certain individuals. Danny Cipriani is finally back in the frame at the age of 30, granted one last chance to show he...