'No fluff': Why England picked Atkinson, an uncapped 31-year-old
Gloucester boss George Skivington has hailed the inclusion of uncapped midfielder Mark Atkinson in the latest England squad, describing it as a just reward for the 31-year-old who has become the latest 30-something Premiership player to show you are never too old to gain a first international recognition. While Jones has involved a multitude of young players in recent times, he demonstrated in the capping of 31-year-old Josh McNally against the USA in July that age is no barrier to England selection.
The shoulder injury sustained at training the following week before Canada meant that McNally was overlooked when Jones named a 45-man training squad this week. But the England coach has again shown a willingness to take a look at an unheralded older in Atkinson, the long-serving Gloucester centre who was one of eight uncapped players asked to attend the camp which starts in London next Sunday.
It was last season, prior to Lewis Ludlow making his own breakthrough with England, when Skivington first learned that Atkinson was of interest to Jones and he was delighted that it has now resulted in a first international call-up for a player who has been playing for Gloucester since 2014 after learning the club ropes at Bedford, Esher, Wasps and Sale.
“Last season he was probably the best ball-in-hand twelve in the league,” enthused Skivington at the weekly Gloucester media briefing. “I did speak to Eddie Jones last year and I knew he was on the radar. He [Atkinson] probably was disappointed he didn’t get any involvement in the summer so delighted for him. Hopefully, he gets an opportunity.
“Consistency is the key for any Premiership player, that is what you aspire to do, is be consistent week in week out. Having one or two good games and then ten average ones isn’t ideal for your club and it certainly won’t get you recognised at international level. His commitment to the cause and his consistently good performances have got him noticed,” added the coach, who confirmed Atkinson is available for selection to face Leicester at Kingsholm on Friday after missing the season-opening defeat at Northampton last Saturday.
“To be honest I messaged him to say, ‘Well done, mate, well deserved and good luck on the tour’ and I haven’t spoken to him yet." @J0nnyMay on Leicester, Gloucester, Lions, competing for his England place and being challenged by LRZ, writes @heagneyl ???https://t.co/aMh2omsROj
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) September 19, 2021
“The development part of his game I haven’t gone too much into. Eddie will probably have those discussions with Mark, and I haven’t spoken to Eddie since he selected Mark so I’m not 100 per cent sure. But I know he likes his ball-playing ability. He is solid in defence but he does find a way through the line, he has got a good offload game and he is smart as well. If you are a ten playing with Mark outside you it is very comfy because he makes good decisions, he reads the game well and those are the sort of bits and pieces Eddie was talking about.”
Skivington added that he now hopes a possible midfield partnership of Atkinson and Lions centre Chris Harris will materialise to greater effect in the coming months. “It didn’t happen as much as we would have liked last year… but get those two working together and they might end up playing against each other this year in international honours as well which would be awesome.
“Beyond being good players, they are key blokes to this squad because they are just good blokes, they work really hard, drive everything forward. They don’t mess around, they don’t fluff it up, there are no excuses and there are a few others in there as well like Billy Twelvetrees.
“When you have got a good group of blokes like that they just add to your environment whether they are international players or not. So that is actually where I have the value of Chris, Mark and Bill more than anything else they do on the field, it’s what they do off the field.”
"With those two situations, I was staring down the barrel of not being able to play pro rugby again"
– From club redundancy and a stroke to playing for England is the remarkable backstory of RAF recruit @JoshJMcNally who tells @heagneyl ??? all about it ?https://t.co/LT6213Y87y
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) September 12, 2021
Comments on RugbyPass
Wasnt late. Ref 2 assistants andTMO all saw it so who are you to say it was?
3 Go to commentsAre the Brumbies playing the Blues twice in a row?
3 Go to commentsBig difference from the Saders. Forwards really muscled up and laid a solid platform. Scooter brought some steel and I liked the loosie combination. Newell has been rather disappointing this season but stepped up big time - happy also to see Franks dot down. He should do that more often! Reihana had a good game and there seems to be more flair and invention with him in the saddle. McNicoll plays well from the back and is reliable plus inventive when he joins the line. Keep it up chaps!
3 Go to comments🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
30 Go to commentsJe suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
3 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusaders , you can keep going.
3 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
30 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
30 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
30 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
30 Go to comments