England cricket captain Eoin Morgan's World Cup advice for Jamie George

In a bid to utilise all avenues of support in the lead up to this year’s World Cup in Japan, England hooker Jamie George has been seeking advice from his nation’s own Cricket World Cup-winning captain Eoin Morgan.

Morgan led England to their first-ever World Cup title in dramatic fashion against New Zealand in front of a home crowd at Lord’s last month, winning the final in a Super Over after scoring more boundaries than the Black Caps, despite both teams finishing on the same number of runs.

Their World Cup success came after they were knocked out of the 2015 tournament at the pool stage, the same fate that the English rugby side endured in their home tournament four years ago.

Now considered frontrunners to win their first Rugby World Cup title since 2003, Eddie Jones’ side are doing everything in their power to overturn their poor efforts from 2015, and that includes taking advice from Morgan and his team.

“I know Eoin Morgan through Saracens and Jason Roy through my mate Sam Billings,” George said ahead of England’s World Cup warm-up match against Wales at Twickenham this weekend.

“You can see the parallels in how they had some pretty disappointing campaigns, some tough losses. Very much like us.

“There aren’t direct parallels in terms of the way the game is played, but in the team culture and the rest of it.

“That’s something Eoin Morgan is very keen on talking about so I have chatted about that with him before.

“He is a very impressive bloke and I have learnt a huge amount from him in terms of what he has done with the England cricket team.

“We have been through very similar challenges. To see them come out the other side and be crowned world champions is fully deserved and I’m very proud of them doing that.”

England’s clash against Wales on Sunday is the first of four pre-World Cup fixtures, with a return clash at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff next week to be followed by one-off matches against Ireland and Italy.

Jones’ side will then kick their World Cup campaign off against Tonga in Sapporo on September 22.

The Rugby is Here: