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England's verdict on the 62-day layoff between games for skipper Farrell and other Saracens players

(Photo by David Rogers/Getty Images)

Eddie Jones isn’t at all concerned by the lack of game time his Saracens contingent of England players – headed by skipper Owen Farrell – will have had over the winter when they assemble at St George’s Park next Wednesday to begin preparations for the 2021 Six Nations campaign. 

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With Saracens automatically relegated from the Gallagher Premiership due to repeated salary cap breaches, the London club were left inactive from October 4, the date of their last appearance in the top flight before demotion, through to last Saturday when they lost at Ealing in the pre-season Trailfinders Cup.   

Jones picked a five-strong contingent of Saracens players – Farrell, Elliot Daly, Jamie George, Maro Itoje and Billy Vunipola – in his squad of 28 England players for the Six Nations and other than Vunipola having a run-out last week against Trailfinders, the others have not played any rugby since the December 6 Autumn Nations Cup final win over France.

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England’s Mike Brown joins Wales’ Jamie Roberts on the latest RugbyPass Offload

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England’s Mike Brown joins Wales’ Jamie Roberts on the latest RugbyPass Offload

That layoff will mean they have gone 62 days without a match by the time they take on Scotland a Twickenham on February 6, a nine-week rest at a time when their fellow England players and the Scottish opposition they will face have been busy with their respective clubs.  

However, rather than worry about this lengthy absence of game time, England boss Jones believes his Saracens picks will be all the better for the rest and will become better players in the long-term for it. 

“The Saracens boys, I went and saw Billy play at Ealing on Saturday and I thought he was in great nick. I thought he was robust, got around the field albeit in a difficult game for him, and I know the rest of the boys have been training really hard. 

“It has been for those guys particularly who have been at the top of the game and have played extra post-season games for the last three or four years, this time period is almost like a god-send to them.

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“They are able to freshen their bodies up, do some really good strength and conditioning work and come back even better players. So I’m anticipating those blokes will be even better. I’m not sure (when this improvement will happen). My wish is for this Six Nations but we will wait and see. But definitely, they will benefit from this experience now and only come out of it better players.”

Mako Vunipola, the other Saracens player regularly in Jones’ England selection, pulled out of that final against France with an achilles injury after he had been chosen to start. He is still not fit but while he was excluded from the England 28 announced on Friday, the prop will join the squad to undertake rehab during the tournament. 

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JW 1 hour ago
'Passionate reunion of France and New Zealand shows Fabien Galthie is wrong to rest his stars'

Where? I remember saying "unders"? The LNR was formed by the FFR, if I said that in a way that meant the 'pro' side of the game didn't have an equal representation/say as the 'amateur' side (FFR remit) that was not my intent.


But also, as it is the governing body, it also has more responsibility. As long as WR looks at FFR as the running body for rugby in France, that 'power' will remain. If the LNR refuses to govern their clubs use of players to enable a request by FFR (from WR) to ensure it's players are able to compete in International rugby takes place they will simply remove their participation. If the players complain to the France's body, either of their health and safety concerns (through playing too many 'minutes' etc) or that they are not allowed to be part in matches of national interest, my understanding is action can be taken against the LNR like it could be any other body/business. I see where you're coming from now re EPCR and the shake up they gave it, yes, that wasn't meant to be a separate statement to say that FFR can threaten them with EPCR expulsion by itself, simply that it would be a strong repercussion for those teams to be removed (no one would want them after the above).


You keep bringing up these other things I cannot understand why. Again, do you think if the LNR were not acting responsibly they would be able to get away with whatever they want (the attitude of these posters saying "they pay the players")? You may deem what theyre doing currently as being irresponsible but most do not. Countries like New Zealand have not even complained about it because they've never had it different, never got things like windfall TV contracts from France, so they can't complain because theyre not missing out on anything. Sure, if the French kept doing things like withholding million dollar game payments, or causing millions of dollars of devaluation in rights, they these things I'm outlining would be taking place. That's not the case currently however, no one here really cares what the French do. It's upto them to sort themselves out if they're not happy. Now, that said, if they did make it obvious to World Rugby that they were never going to send the French side away (like they possibly did stating their intent to exclude 20 targeted players) in July, well then they would simply be given XV fixtures against tier 2 sides during that window and the FFR would need to do things like the 50/50 revenue split to get big teams visiting in Nov.

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