'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
If he had stopped insisting on playing in the backrow, instead of wing, where everyone told him he should, he would have been a Bok years ago….
11 Go to comments‘Salads don’t win scrums’ 😂 I love that.
19 Go to commentsCan’t wait for the article that talks about misogyny in Ireland. Somehow.
16 Go to commentsI would like to see a rule change, when the attacking team is held up over the try line, by allowing the defensive team to restart a goal line drop out releases the pressure for the defensive team, but what if the attacking team had to restart a tap 5m out from the defensive team it gives the attacking team to apply more pressure, there are endless options for the attacking side and it will keep the fans in suspence.
2 Go to commentsLess modern South African males predictably triggered.
16 Go to commentsMy heart is with Quins, but the head is convinced Toulouse have too much. Ntamack is back, his timing and wisdom has been missed.
1 Go to commentsWow, what a starting line up for the Sharks) Tasty up front,kremer vs Tshituka or venter …fiery ,,Lavannini ,,will he knobble etzebeth? Biggest game for belleau?
1 Go to commentsIt was rubbish to watch, Blues weren’t even present. Did what they had to do, nothing more. Should be better next week against canes.
1 Go to commentsI’ve just noticed that this match has an all-French refereeing team. Surely a game like this ought to have a neutral ref? Although looking at the BBC preview of the Saints game, Raynal is also down as reffing that - so there may be some confusion about who is reffing what.
1 Go to commentsIf Havili can play anywhere in the back line, why not first 5. #10.
11 Go to commentsThe dressing room had already left for their summer break before they ran out in Dublin that year, and that’s on the coach. Franco Smith has undoubtedly made progress, particularly their maul, developing squad players and increasing squad depth. And against a very tight budget too. That said they were too lightweight last year and got found out against both Toulon and Munster in consecutive games. Better this season so far but they’ve developed something of a slow start habit occasionally, most notably losing at home to Northampton who played them at their own game. Play offs will ultimately show whether there has been tangible progress on last year, or not…!
2 Go to commentsAustralian Rugby has been a disaster, by not incorporating learning from previous successful campaigns. QLD Reds 2011 - Waratahs 2014. Players, coaches and administrators appoint there representatives for scheduled meetings, organisation’s agreement’s assessments and correspondence. This why a unified Rugby Union under one entity works. Every Rugby nation has taken that path. Was most difficult in the Northern hemisphere with over 100 years of club rugby before the game become professional. Took a lot of humility for those unions to eventually work together.
7 Go to commentsThough Wilson’s sacking was pretty brutal, it wasn’t just down to that Leinster game; Glasgow had a lot of 2nd half collapses that season, in the URC and Europe, and only just scraped into the playoffs. Franco Smith has definitely been an improvement, some players are delivering far more than they did under Wilson.
2 Go to commentsjesus - that front 5!
1 Go to commentsShould be an absolute cracker of a game! Will be great to see DuPont & Ntamack in tandem once again🔥
1 Go to commentsBest team ever…. To have played? These guys are still pressure chokers. Came nowhere when it counted. What a joke
81 Go to commentsMusk defends anonymous terrorism, fascism, threats against individuals and children etc etc But a Rugby club account….lock ‘em up!!!
2 Go to commentsActually the era defining moment came a few years earlier. February 2002 to be precise, when Michael D Higgins as finance minister at the time introduced his sports persons tax relief bill to the dial. As the politicians of the day stated “It seems to be another daft K Club frolic born in Kildare amongst the well-paid professional jockeys with whom the Minister plays golf” and that the scheme represented “a savage uncaring vision of Ireland and one that should be condemned”. The irfu and Leinster would be nowhere near the position they are in today without this key component of the finances.
5 Go to commentsIt is crystal clear that people who make such threats on line should be tried and imprisoned. Those with responsibility in social media companies who don’t facilitate this should be convicted. In real life, I have free speech to approach someone like Reinach and verbally threaten him. I am risking a conviction or a slap but I could do it. In the old days, If someone anonymously threatened someone by letter the police would ask and use evidence from the postal system. Unlike the Post, social media companies have complete instant and legal access to the content in social media. They make money from the data, billions. Yet, they turn a blind eye to terrorism, Nazi-ism and industrial levels of threats against individuals including their address and childrens schools being published online all from ananoymous accounts not real people. They claim free speech. Free speech for anonymous trolls/voilent thugs threatening people under false names? The fault is with the perps but also social media companies who think anonymous personas posting death threats constitutes free speech.
2 Go to commentsSo if this ain’t the best Irish team ever then who exactly is? I don’t remember any other Irish team being this good & winning a series in the Land of the Long White Cloud. Yes I may rip them often for 8 X QF RWC exits & twice not even making it to the QF, but they’re a damn good team who many think can only improve, including me!
81 Go to comments