'Might present him with the park bench': Jones' quip over de Glanville Barbarians antics

Eddie Jones has delighted in being able to welcome promising Bath youngster Tom de Glanville back into England fold for next week’s five-day summer series training camp in London eight months after he was omitted from their plans last October and then fell foul of the RFU for his involvement in the Barbarians match cancellation.   

The 21-year-old son of former England skipper Phil was involved with Jones’ squad when they first assembled last October ahead of the restart to the international season. After having an initial look at the full-back in England training, it was decided to allow him to join up with the Barbarians squad that was set to play Jones’ English side at Twickenham.

However, that exhibition match fell by the wayside after it emerged that 13 Barbarians players – including de Glanville – breached the bubble restrictions in the week leading up to the game and it resulted in an embarrassing situation unfolding. 

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It wasn’t until some weeks later that de Glanville learned he was banned from playing for two weeks at Bath, would have to do 50 hours unpaid community work and was fined one week’s wages. However, he has since managed to put that incident behind him and 14 starts for his club in this season’s Gallagher Premiership have seen him catch the eye of Jones again in a positive light. 

After including de Glanville in the squad of 34 for next week’s training camp in London, Jones quipped: “I’ve just got a picture of him in my mind on a park bench drinking beers, so I might present him with the park bench when he comes in to make him feel comfortable. 

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“No, no, he has responded really well. He got left out of our squad, then he had a difficult time at Bath finding his way back in and now he has fought his way back in. We are starting to see again the things we saw originally in him. He has got nice balance, he is a courageous guy, has got a nice feel for the game and he has responded well Massively, that (adversity) is a good example for him, a good experience for him and now he can take that on forward.”

It was last month when de Glanville broke his silence on the Barbarians matter, saying: “After that whole Barbarians thing, I was in a pretty bad place and in terms of reflection I came back so much hungrier to get better. It was a bit of a reality check in terms of what I needed to do to get where I wanted to be. It became much more real and it was a tough road ahead. I’m enjoying it as we go on it.

“My brothers, my family played a massive role in that. My housemate Cam Redpath was there for me just chatting and stuff, getting stuff off my chest which was nice. They were probably the two main groups of people that helped me.

“Getting that snippet of being in England camp just made me want it so much more coming out of it. Everything I have done has made me want to be back in that squad and be back in that environment and give myself a chance to develop. I’m excited and I will hopefully play well for Bath and things come off the back of that.”

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