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The junk mail gaffe that left Max Ojomoh unaware of England call

(Photo by Alex Davidson - RFU/Getty Images)

Rookie Bath midfielder Max Ojomoh has revealed he was left in the dark about Eddie Jones wanting him for the summer series versus the USA and Canada as his England squad selection email from the RFU went into his junk folder. The 20-year-old ultimately remained uncapped at Test level as Jones opted to give first caps to a multitude of other players but Bath are now hoping to benefit from the midfielder’s unexpected June 10 senior international level call-up which came even though the youngster had made a half-dozen appearances for Stuart Hooper’s side.

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The four weeks spent in England camp gave Ojomoh, the son of former Test back-rower Steve, a glimpse of the standards required to play at Test level and having started at centre in two of Bath last three games in the 2020/21 Gallagher Premiership season, he will now be looking to push on with his club in the hope that a second call-up from  England boss Jones will eventually materialise. 

“The email was in my junk folder,” he revealed on the Bath club website when asked about his England call-up in June. “I didn’t actually find out until the day of the announcement when Stuart came and told me. I was really surprised, but to get called up for England was a dream come true. To play with some of the best players in England, you can’t really get much better than that and it was really good for my game.

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What sacrifice means to the Black Ferns

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What sacrifice means to the Black Ferns

“With it almost being game intensity every training session, it feels like I have had five or ten more games at Bath. With England, every training session you can expect to be pushed. It is closer to game intensity. The training helped a lot with my decision making and there were a lot more unit sessions, so it helped refine my skills and mature my game a bit more.

“I will take it as a great learning experience and I am hoping for the season ahead I will be a lot more confident going into games knowing I’m ready for that kind of level.”

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Flankly 1 hour 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?

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