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The Saracens reaction to curious England rejection of Nick Isiekwe
Saracens have confirmed that a knock wasn’t the reason why Nick Isiekwe was omitted from the squad of 25 training with England in London this week. The 23-year-old bridged his four-year gap back to his previous Test cap appearance when chosen to start in the Guinness Six Nations opener away to Scotland on February 5 and he followed that up with a second successive start in last Sunday’s win away to Italy in Rome.
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However, it emerged on Tuesday evening when England named their training week squad ahead of the round three game versus Wales on February 27 that Isiekwe had been released back to Saracens by Eddie Jones.
He was the only player who started twice in the opening two rounds of the championship not to be kept on in camp, England opting instead to bring the fit-again Joe Launchbury in as they start their planning for the Twickenham match versus the Welsh.
Launchbury had been at England training for two days last week before going back and playing for Wasps in their weekend win over Bath, his third club appearance since a terrible knee injury was suffered last April.
His last cap for England came in December 2020 as he was also unavailable through injury for last year’s Six Nations, but he now appears to have got the jump on Isiekwe despite the Saracens lock’s efforts these past two weekends at Murrayfield and the Stadio Olimpico.
Saracens aren’t sure yet whether they will involve Isiekwe in their league match this Saturday at London Irish but head coach Joe Shaw has given his view on how the second row fared being back on the England scene and how he will react now to the setback of not getting selected for this week’s fallow week camp.
“If you are not involved playing for your country I am sure you are going to be disappointed,” said Shaw when quizzed by RugbyPass at his weekly media briefing on Wednesday. “I don’t know what the conversion was with Eddie but Nick will come in like he does every week and his focus just turns to Saracens.
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“He is in this environment and loves this environment loves being with his mates. He has been here for such a long time so when he gets the opportunity to represent us he puts his best foot forward and no doubt that is what he will do in the next couple of days.
“It [playing for England] will have done him the world of good because ultimately when you are playing at what is the highest level in a competition like the Six Nations, you are not only holding your own you are pushing, you’re leading, you’re doing some things that are taking the team forward. That is going to do his confidence and his maturity the world of good.
“Being in that England environment with the best players in England and learning from them, that is what Nick does, he learns. He is somebody who has got this appetite to get better and better. He can’t only get better from it.”
Comments on RugbyPass
Why cant I watch Rugby games please?
1 Go to commentsBeautiful shot from Finau, end of story. Gutted for Shaun Stevenson though.
4 Go to commentsThe Chiefs definitely didn’t win ugly. They had the superior scrum, a dominant lineout, and their defence was excellent once the Waratahs scored their two tries (thanks to some lucky refereeing calls mind you). They put pressure on the Waratahs lineout throughout the game, and the mind boggles as to why the referee did not award a yellow card or a penalty try against the Waratahs for repeated scrum infringements on their own try line before Narawa’s first try. And the Chiefs were slick with their passing and running angles on attack. It was a dominant performance all round, even with many questionable refereeing decisions.
1 Go to commentsWasnt late. Ref 2 assistants andTMO all saw it so who are you to say it was?
4 Go to commentsAre the Brumbies playing the Blues twice in a row?
4 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
4 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.
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