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England squad evacuated from their Brighton hotel because of fire

By Liam Heagney
(Photo by PA)

England’s preparations for the upcoming Guinness Six Nations took another unexpected twist on Tuesday night when Eddie Jones’ squad was evacuated from their hotel on the Brighton seafront after a fire broke out. Reports suggest that an electrical fire started in a manhole near to the Harbour Hotel on the King’s Road and this necessitated the England squad switching hotels. Online footage from passers-by showed flames shooting from the pavement. 

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The evacuation was the latest curveball thrown at England ahead of a championship they will begin with a February 5 match away to Scotland. Earlier on Tuesday evening, Joe Marler was forced out of the squad after he tested positive for Covid for the second time in eleven weeks

“Covid can eat s— but it does mean I can go back to my diet of chillis and onions x,” tweeted Marler, who must isolate for ten days but can end his isolation early under revised rules if he tests negative on day five and six after his positive result. 

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Rob Kearney and Alfie Barbeary – A Lion and a Wasp

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Rob Kearney and Alfie Barbeary – A Lion and a Wasp

The Harlequins loosehead has packed down last Friday against Castres hooker Gaetan Barlot, one of the ten players withdrawn from the France squad after testing positive for the virus. 

Marler’s Tuesday setback followed the Monday confirmation that George Ford and Elliot Daly had been called up by England to replace skipper Owen Farrell, who last week suffered a fresh ankle injury while training at Saracens, while a knee injury that Jonny May had recently been carrying for Gloucester left him defeated. The latest update on Wednesday was that Farrell was out for the entire championship with May likely to also not be available for any game. 

Getting comfortable getting feeling uncomfortable is a phrase England boss Jones has wanted his squad to embrace and they have certainly done that so far in the early stages of their build-up to the start of the Six Nations. “Last night didn’t help but it’s brilliant – we kind of had that throughout the Autumn Nations so we are pretty prepared,” said Tom Curry when he appeared at the virtually held official Six Nations launch on Wednesday morning. 

“The way we train, different combinations, we are pretty aware that stuff like this can happen now so we are ready and pretty excited to get going.  We are probably a bit more attacking and we are more at teams, which is big for us as that is when we are playing our best rugby. That is a big difference, especially from what we saw in the autumn nations.”

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Curry was one of three vice-captains appointed under skipper Farrell for the Autumn Nations Series along with Courtney Lawes and Ellis Genge. With skipper Farrell not with the squad in Brighton as he seeks out specialist medical advice and with Lawes, who captained for the November matches versus Tonga and South Africa, nursing in camp the concussion he picked up with Northampton, it left Curry in the hot-seat for the Six Nations launch the morning after a fire-affected Tuesday night with England.    

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Jon 7 hours ago
Jake White: Are modern rugby players actually better?

This is the problem with conservative mindsets and phycology, and homogenous sports, everybody wants to be the same, use the i-win template. Athlete wise everyone has to have muscles and work at the gym to make themselves more likely to hold on that one tackle. Do those players even wonder if they are now more likely to be tackled by that player as a result of there “work”? Really though, too many questions, Jake. Is it better Jake? Yes, because you still have that rugby of ole that you talk about. Is it at the highest International level anymore? No, but you go to your club or checkout your representative side and still engage with that ‘beautiful game’. Could you also have a bit of that at the top if coaches encouraged there team to play and incentivized players like Damian McKenzie and Ange Capuozzo? Of course we could. Sadly Rugby doesn’t, or didn’t, really know what direction to go when professionalism came. Things like the state of northern pitches didn’t help. Over the last two or three decades I feel like I’ve been fortunate to have all that Jake wants. There was International quality Super Rugby to adore, then the next level below I could watch club mates, pulling 9 to 5s, take on the countries best in representative rugby. Rugby played with flair and not too much riding on the consequences. It was beautiful. That largely still exists today, but with the world of rugby not quite getting things right, the picture is now being painted in NZ that that level of rugby is not required in the “pathway” to Super Rugby or All Black rugby. You might wonder if NZR is right and the pathway shouldn’t include the ‘amateur’, but let me tell you, even though the NPC might be made up of people still having to pull 9-5s, we know these people still have dreams to get out of that, and aren’t likely to give them. They will be lost. That will put a real strain on the concept of whether “visceral thrill, derring-do and joyful abandon” type rugby will remain under the professional level here in NZ. I think at some point that can be eroded as well. If only wanting the best athlete’s at the top level wasn’t enough to lose that, shutting off the next group, or level, or rugby players from easy access to express and showcase themselves certainly will. That all comes back around to the same question of professionalism in rugby and whether it got things right, and rugby is better now. Maybe the answer is turning into a “no”?

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j
john 10 hours ago
Will the Crusaders' decline spark a slow death for New Zealand rugby?

But here in Australia we were told Penney was another gun kiwi coach, for the Tahs…….and yet again it turned out the kiwi coach was completely useless. Another con job on Australian rugby. As was Robbie Deans, as was Dave Rennie. Both coaches dumped from NZ and promoted to Australia as our saviour. And the Tahs lap them up knowing they are second rate and knowing that under pressure when their short comings are exposed in Australia as well, that they will fall in below the largest most powerful province and choose second rate Tah players to save their jobs. As they do and exactly as Joe Schmidt will do. Gauranteed. Schmidt was dumped by NZ too. That’s why he went overseas. That why kiwi coaches take jobs in Australia, to try and prove they are not as bad as NZ thought they were. Then when they get found out they try and ingratiate themselves to NZ again by dragging Australian teams down with ridiculous selections and game plans. NZ rugby’s biggest problem is that it can’t yet transition from MCaw Cheatism. They just don’t know how to try and win on your merits. It is still always a contest to see how much cheating you can get away with. Without a cheating genius like McCaw, they are struggling. This I think is why my wise old mate in NZ thinks Robertson will struggle. The Crusaders are the nursery of McCaw Cheatism. Sean Fitzpatrick was probably the father of it. Robertson doesn’t know anything else but other countries have worked it out.

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A
Adrian 12 hours ago
Will the Crusaders' decline spark a slow death for New Zealand rugby?

Thanks Nick The loss of players to OS, injury and retirement is certainly not helping the Crusaders. Ditto the coach. IMO Penny is there to hold the fort and cop the flak until new players and a new coach come through,…and that's understood and accepted by Penny and the Crusaders hierarchy. I think though that what is happening with the Crusaders is an indicator of what is happening with the other NZ SRP teams…..and the other SRP teams for that matter. Not enough money. The money has come via the SR competition and it’s not there anymore. It's in France, Japan and England. Unless or until something is done to make SR more SELLABLE to the NZ/Australia Rugby market AND the world rugby market the $s to keep both the very best players and the next rung down won't be there. They will play away from NZ more and more. I think though that NZ will continue to produce the players and the coaches of sufficient strength for NZ to have the capacity to stay at the top. Whether they do stay at the top as an international team will depend upon whether the money flowing to SRP is somehow restored, or NZ teams play in the Japan comp, or NZ opts to pick from anywhere. As a follower of many sports I’d have to say that the organisation and promotion of Super Rugby has been for the last 20 years closest to the worst I’ve ever seen. This hasn't necessarily been caused by NZ, but it’s happened. Perhaps it can be fixed, perhaps not. The Crusaders are I think a symptom of this, not the cause

39 Go to comments
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