Watch: Former England lock goes viral after casual conversion in rout of former side
Former England lock George Kruis has rubbed salt in the wound for Eddie Jones’ side with a casual back-heel conversion as the Barbarians ran up the score against England at Twickenham.
The French-dominated invitation side humbed England by a mammoth 52-21 scoreline on their home patch in what was a non-cap international warm-up before England’s Australia tour.
Kicking the last conversion in his final game of rugby, Kruis casually took over the goal kicking duties and knocked over the two points with an impressive back heel kick.
The clip of the conversion has now been watched over 700,000 times on Twitter, making Kruis’ trick kick a viral sensation.
George Kruis showboating 2 from 2 #ENGVBAR pic.twitter.com/q0TceS2lzf
— MW Home PT (@MWHomePT) June 19, 2022
When your old lock BACKHEELS a conversion against you 😑 #ENGvBAR pic.twitter.com/bsQ2EhNfL2
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) June 19, 2022
George Kruis what a legend!
He has had a brilliant career, so pleased to see him get a great reception and POM at Twickenham. Loved his back heel conversation! England have got plenty of work to do ahead of the AUS tour. #ENGvBAR— Maggie Alphonsi MBE (@MaggieAlphonsi) June 19, 2022
Eddie Jones was adamant in his press conference that this was an ‘England select’ team rather than a first choice test team as he experimented with the last chance before facing the Wallabies.
“We were beaten pretty badly at the breakdown, so it’s a good reminder of how much work we have to do before Australia,” he said.
“No one is happy about the result but, again, we look at it in the light of what we’re trying to do.
“There’s a contextual situation here. I know you’re struggling to understand it, but we’re trying to build a new team, play a different way, a style that suits that players and there are going to be some ups and downs.”
“I don’t know, if we would have played a normal England game, what the score would have been but that’s not what we wanted out of the game.
“Now we wanted to win the game against the Barbarians, don’t get me wrong, but this was preparation for Australia so we tried to play differently and extend the players. In some places we didn’t cope well with it.”