Northern Edition

Select Edition

Northern Northern
Southern Southern
Global Global
New Zealand New Zealand
France France

'Interesting isolation with him and Marler if they were together'

(Photo by David Rogers/Getty Images)

Eddie Jones has reacted to the Friday morning revelation that Ellis Genge has become the second England loosehead inside a week to test positive for Covid, the vice-captain getting his unfortunate result four days after it emerged on Monday that Joe Marler had tested positive and was ruled out of selection.

ADVERTISEMENT

Genge had started last weekend’s Autumn Nations Series opener versus Tonga, with Marler covering him from the bench in the 69-3 win. However, neither of those players will now feature against the Wallabies in the second match of the three-game November programme. 

With Marler ruled out on Monday, England decided to call up Bevan Rodd, an uncapped 21-year-old from Sale, following training on Tuesday and he went on to be named on the bench on Thursday behind Genge after leapfrogging the one-cap Trevor Davison in the selection pecking order. 

Video Spacer

Why Morne Steyn will be remembered as one of the greatest Springboks

Video Spacer

Why Morne Steyn will be remembered as one of the greatest Springboks

That was quite an achievement but the inclusion of Rodd became an even more dramatic feat when he learned on Friday morning that he was now in the starting team – with Davison providing bench cover – after Genge tested positive for the virus. 

This finding has now ended Genge’s series as he must isolate for ten days and will miss the concluding game versus the Springboks on Saturday week. Asked how the England squad had taken the news about Genge, Jones said: “We just treat it [Covid disruption] as normal now. Every day is an adventure and we are on a bit of a rollercoaster at the moment. 

“Covid keeps coming and we just have to get on with it. It’s a great opportunity for a young guy like Bevan Rodd to play his first Test at Twickenham against one of our arch enemies Australia. We have got the greatest confidence in him, and Trevor has been in our squad since summer now and deserves the opportunity off the bench. While we are disappointed for Ellis, because he is such an important part of our team, it’s a great opportunity for the team to step up and for those two young players to step up. 

“Ellis is not sick at all, which is the frustrating thing for him… He is enormously disappointed. He is vice-captain of this team. He loves playing against Australia, he loves the challenge of playing at Twickenham but he will rebound. It will be an interesting isolation with him and Marler together if they were together. Fortunately, they are not because we might only end up with one coming out,” continued Jones. During the recent Lions tour, isolated players were able to mix amongst themselves away from the rest of the squad.

ADVERTISEMENT

“Everyone has mixed emotions. I was watching the players come through this morning. Some are disappointed for Ellis, others are angry, others just want to get on with it. We just had a short team meeting this morning, Owen (Farrell) and the senior players spoke really well, we got everyone back on the same page and we just got on with it.”

With Genge testing positive, additional testing was ordered for the rest of the England squad. “We have had no other positive test results and we have undergone an additional round of lateral flow testing and PCR testing this morning [Friday],” explained an RFU spokesperson. 

“No positive lateral flow test for any players or staff this morning. We will expect the results of today’s PCR testing either later tonight or early tomorrow morning depending on what time they come back from the lab to us.”

While it looks like a crisis that England have lost two players to Covid in the space of a few November days, Jones was adamant that his camp has done well over the course of the pandemic to restrict the virus. “It [Covid] is a fact of life.

ADVERTISEMENT

“You have just got to watch the BBC news every morning and see the number of cases every day in the UK. It’s out there. We are doing everything we can in the team to safeguard against it and trying to apply some common sense. Since Covid, we have had two positive cases in nearly two years now so our strike rate is pretty good.

“I would say there is a law of averages here. If we were to sit down 20 months after the Covid-19 pandemic and say we had just two positive cases I think we would be pretty rapt with that result. I just think there is a lot more out there. 

“You hear a lot more people with Covid now than I heard during the height of the pandemic, the number of people being infected by it. We’re keeping very strict regulations about what we do and we are pleased with the discipline of the players. It is just one of these unfortunate consequences of a pandemic.”  

ADVERTISEMENT

LIVE

{{item.title}}

Trending on RugbyPass

Comments

0 Comments
Be the first to comment...

Join free and tell us what you really think!

Sign up for free
ADVERTISEMENT

Latest Features

Comments on RugbyPass

F
Flankly 58 minutes ago
'Absolute madness': Clive Woodward rips into Borthwick in wake of NZ loss

Borthwick is supposed to be the archetypical conservative coach, the guy that might not deliver a sparkling, high-risk attacking style, but whose teams execute the basics flawlessly. And that's OK, because it can be really hard to beat teams that are rock solid and consistent in the rugby equivalent of "blocking and tackling".


But this is why the performance against NZ is hard to defend. You can forgive a conservative, back-to-basics team for failing to score tons of tries, because teams like that make up for it with reliability in the simple things. They can defend well, apply territorial pressure, win the set piece battles, and take their scoring chances with metronomic goal kicking, maul tries and pick-and-go goal line attacks.


The reason why the English rugby administrators should be on high alert is not that the English team looked unable to score tries, but that they were repeatedly unable to close out a game by executing basic, coachable skills. Regardless of how they got to the point of being in control of their destiny, they did get to that point. All that was needed was to be world class at things that require more training than talent. But that training was apparently missing, and the finger has to point at the coach.


Borthwick has been in the job for nearly two years, a period that includes two 6N programs and an RWC campaign. So where are the solid foundations that he has been building?

4 Go to comments
N
Nickers 1 hour ago
Scott Robertson responds to criticism over All Blacks' handling errors

Very poor understanding of what's going on and 0 ability to read. When I say playing behind the gain line you take this to mean all off-loads and site times we are playing in front of the gain line???


Every time we play a lot of rugby behind the gain line (for clarity, meaning trying to build an attack and use width without front foot ball 5m+ behind the most recent breakdown) we go backwards and turn the ball over in some way. Every time a player is tackled behind the most recent breakdown you need more and more people to clear out because your forwards have to go back around the corner, whereas opposition players can keep moving forward. Eventually you run out of either players to clear out or players to pass to and the result in a big net loss of territory and often a turnover. You may have witnessed that 20+ times in the game against England. This is a particularly dumb idea inside your own 40m which is where, for some reason, we are most likely to employ it.


The very best ABs teams never built an identity around attacking from poor positions. The DC era team was known for being the team that kicked the most. To engineer field position and apply pressure, and create broken play to counter attack. This current team is not differentiating between when a defence has lost it's structure and there are opportunities, and when they are completely set and there is nothing on. The reason they are going for 30 minute + periods in every game without scoring a single point, even against Japan and a poor Australian team, is because they are playing most of their rugby on the back foot in the wrong half.

43 Go to comments
N
Nickers 1 hour ago
Scott Robertson responds to criticism over All Blacks' handling errors

I thought we made a lot of progress against that type of defence by the WC last year. Lots of direct running and punching holes rather than using width. Against that type of defence I think you have to be looking to kick on first phase when you have front foot ball which we did relatively successfully. We are playing a lot of rugby behind the gain line at the moment. They are looking for those little interchanges for soft shoulders and fast ball or off loads but it regularly turns into them battering away with slow ball and going backwards, then putting in a very rushed kick under huge pressure.


JB brought that dimension when he first moved into 12 a couple of years ago but he's definitely not been at his best this year. I don't know if it is because he is being asked to play a narrow role, or carrying a niggle or two, but he does not look confident to me. He had that clean break on the weekend and stood there like he was a prop who found himself in open space and didn't know what to do with the ball. He is still a good first phase ball carrier though, they use him a lot off the line out to set up fast clean ball, but I don't think anyone is particularly clear on what they are supposed to do at that point. He was used really successfully as a second playmaker last year but I don't think he's been at that role once this year. He is a triple threat player but playing a very 1 dimensional role at the moment. He and Reiko have been absolutely rock solid on defence which is why I don't think there will be too much experimentation or changes there.

43 Go to comments
TRENDING
TRENDING Borthwick, it's time to own up – Andy Goode Borthwick, it's time to own up – Andy Goode
Search