England’s preparations for their clash with the All Blacks on Saturday have been boosted by some words of wisdom from the former US Open tennis champion Emma Raducanu, who visited their Bagshot training base on Tuesday.
Raducanu took to the training field with Steve Borthwick’s squad, taking part in lineout practice and kicking drills with Marcus Smith before sharing insights with the captain, Maro Itoje. Borthwick also invited the Brighton manager, Fabian Hürzeler, to address the squad this week.
Eddie Jones was vilified in 2021 when he appeared to criticise the British No 1 women’s tennis player, using the 22-year-old to illustrate the pitfalls of off-field distractions when saying: “There’s a reason why the young girl who won the US Open hasn’t done so well afterwards.” As revealed by the Guardian, Raducanu then skipped an invitation from the Rugby Football Union to attend a match at Twickenham later that autumn.
According to Borthwick, however, Raducanu was happy to share her expertise with his squad before they bid for a first Twickenham win against the All Blacks in 13 years.
“It’s just great having people, elite sportspeople come and visit us,” Borthwick said. “Emma was talking to the players and sharing her experiences about preparing for the elite level of competition, which is terrific. People like her are always very welcome because we learn a lot and the players enjoy learning from others’ experience.”
Fin Baxter, who starts at loosehead on Saturday, was also glowing in his endorsement of Raducanu’s insight. “She watched training today and then we did a few bits after,” he said. “I think she did a bit of kicking with Marcus. Maro was chatting to her and we were all drifting off, letting two big dogs of their sports talk.
“The amount of pressure that she has to go under, because of how successful she is, is definitely something we can all learn from.”
