'Does Eddie support England or Australia in the Ashes... who actually knows?'
Elliot Daly believes having England’s cricketers currently playing Australia in the Ashes is a positive distraction as Eddie Jones’ rugby squad continues preparations for the Rugby World Cup in Japan.
The five-match series, which opened last Thursday at Edgbaston, is a hot topic of conversation among the rugby players, although Daly is not quite sure which country their Australian coach Jones is supporting.
“Does he support England or Australia? Who actually knows? To be fair to Eddie he likes any sporting event. He likes the challenge of it. We will be discussing batting orders maybe and opening combinations.
“I won’t be in a room watching it with Eddie but I’m sure we will discuss it over a coffee. He loves his cricket and always wants to know what is going on, so I’m sure I will be informed and keep updating him with the latest score.
“I spoke with Jamie George about it the other morning. We were trying to choose our team. The lads love a bit of cricket and especially the Ashes and World Cup. It adds to our talk a lot.”
HIGHLIGHTS: Watch back incredible day for @roryburns17 on Day 2 of the first @Specsavers #Ashes Test at Edgbaston!
— England Cricket (@englandcricket) August 2, 2019
England’s recent World Cup success demonstrated to Daly and co what is achievable if they stick to their rugby guns in Japan. “It was a great day,” he said, recalling how the rugby squad watched the cricket final at their team base in Bristol some weeks ago.
“We delayed the meeting by probably 45 minutes because of the Super Over and how close the game was. It was an unbelievable finish and unbelievable for them to win the World Cup in the same year that we are trying to win the World Cup.”
https://twitter.com/mitchwccc/status/1150687711176593408
It slipped Daly’s mind, though, to rub the result into John Mitchell, the England defence coach who has strong New Zealand cricket connections.
“That’s a good question, I don’t actually know (how he took the result). I’m sure he took it very well but I think his son plays for New Zealand (Twenty20), doesn’t he? I might actually get a bit stuck into him about that.”
It has been a challenge for Mike Brown and his England colleagues to cope with the humidity in Italy.
https://t.co/WYhQg5NZNe— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) July 31, 2019
Daly dabbled with the bat growing up, playing with Jason Roy, England’s Ashes opener, at school and at Surrey age-grade. However, now fully ensconced in a successful rugby career, there has never been a moment when he wished he stuck with cricket instead.
“No, never… although the lifestyle of a cricketer does look quite good. But moving around a lot of the time can be annoying and not being with your family for probably two, three, four, five months at a time compared to the month we do can be a little tough. No, I’m happy with my choice.”
WATCH: The latest RugbyPass documentary, Foden – Stateside, looks at how ex-England international Ben Foden is settling into Major League Rugby in New York
Comments on RugbyPass
I’ve actually never heard of the guy (then I don’t watch League as it is boring). But if he is good enough.. then good luck to him. If not, well, he can always return to league.
2 Go to commentsIt is pretty clear that by almost any measure that NZ are a more successful rugby nation than South Africa. Quite aside from the distasteful events during the last RWC final. NZ lead SA in all significant measurements.
37 Go to commentsDickson went to his pocket for a card, saw who it was, changed his mind and spoke at length to TMO. One angle clearly shows Care diving over a Saints player to kill the ball. 1st yellow, reason given for not Red was player was falling backwards. He was only falling backwards after contact with Lawes. Graham try should have stood. Mitchell did not have both hands on the ball, ball went forward from a Saints boot dragging over it. 2 intentional knock-on's. One of which had an overlap on the outside. If Quins are happy to win by intentional foul play, then it does not say much for them. Would appear to be a bad day for Karl Dickson, also for the RFU in appointing a Ref who spent 8 years as a player at one of the clubs.
1 Go to commentsLet’s not forget about Ardie Savea just yet.
4 Go to commentsThe URC and the Euro Championscup can’t run at the same time, basically dilutes both competitions.
1 Go to comments“While Sotutu should start at No.8 for the All Blacks against England, but it’s only in that arena that he can prove just how good he really is.” And that my friends is where simply hasnt shone despite multiple opportunities. Even in this performance you can see what did him in in the test arena..he almost always still runs at the opposition almost ramrod upright making him easier to stop than it should be.
4 Go to commentsShould have been 0-0 and a message from SR CEO to both teams - “don’t worry about turning up next year”.
4 Go to commentsGreat work Owen Franks. A great of this team, scoring his first try for the Crusaders since 2010.He was beaming, justifiably. A fine win, he and the rest did the job up front.
1 Go to commentsDanny Care. Lang in die tand.
1 Go to commentsBig empty stadium does nothing for atmosphere but munster are playing well with solid performance
1 Go to commentsYes, Fiji can win the World Cup! With that belief plus their christian faith🙏 and hard work it is achievable. Great article. Ian Duncan Fiji resident 1981-84
2 Go to commentsInteresting comments about Touch. England’s hosting the Touch World Cup this year and the numbers have exploded since their last World Cup in 2019, something like 70% more teams and 40 nations taking part. And England Touch have made a big thing about how many universities are in their BUCS University Touch Championship as well as Sport England membership. Can only see this growing even more domestically as more people become aware of it
10 Go to comments“Cortez Ratima is light years ahead of anyone on current form, while TJ Perenara has also skyrocketed into contention following the unfortunate injury to the talented Cam Roigard.” At last some sanity. Hitherto so many pundits have been wittering on about Finlay Christie to the point one wondered if they were observing a FC in a parallel universe where the FC they saw wasnt just the mediocre Shayne Philpott project of Fosters hapless AB reign in the real world. Ratima, Perenara and Fakatava are the ONLY logical 9s for Razor now Roigard is crocked.
4 Go to commentsThis game was just as painful as the Hurricanes game. It was real fork-in-the-eye stuff.
4 Go to commentsNow if they could just fire the Crusaders ground PA guy who likes to play his dance music and just loves the sound of his own voice the entire game, even when play is going on. And I thought their brass band thing of a few years ago was bad.
5 Go to commentsUnfortunately when you lose by far the two form players this season in Roigard and Aumua, you're left replacing two game changing Tanks with a couple of pea-shooters. Which is also about the speed of TJs pass.
4 Go to commentsBit rich coming from the guy with zero loyalty to anyone or any team, including happily taking a players place in a league world cup squad because well, SBW wanted to play in it and thus an already named player got told he was no longer going. And airing stuff like this, which may or may not be true, doesn't exactly say you're a stand up guy either SBW. Just looking to keep his name in lights as usual.
38 Go to commentsTamati Tua. …the Taniwha NPC midfielder. Ollie Sapsford, Hawkes Bay NPC midfielder…doing well
4 Go to commentsFiji deserve to be in the rugby championship, fans love seeing the Fijian national team play, the Fijian Drua is a wonderful idea but the players can still be stolen to play for NZ and AUS…
2 Go to commentsThe first concern for this afternoon are wheather forecast…
1 Go to comments