With two games of the Six Nations left and Wales two points ahead, England’s players and coaches were happy enough to talk about the off-field challenges facing Warren Gatland’s team but a little less keen to discuss their own.
“Distractions, external factors are very challenging,” their defence coach, John Mitchell, said when talking about how Gatland would have to deal with the upheaval caused by the on-off merger between the Ospreys and Scarlets. “I wouldn’t like to be in his shoes.” But when it came to the scrutiny of Saracens’ financial arrangements, Mitchell insisted “it’s not even spoken about – it’s irrelevant to us”.
That was not quite how one of England’s Saracens, Jamie George, put it. “We came in at the weekend and people were giving us stick,” he admitted, “but it is was all banter, to be honest.” Despite that, George insisted he was not thinking about it. “We are in a fight for the championship which we are desperate to win and that has to be our main focus. Whatever happens in two weeks’ time, when we go back to our club, will happen. The focus for us now is very much on England.”
George said that Owen Farrell, whose deal with the Saracens owner, Nigel Wray, has come in for particular attention, feels similarly. “He has been as good as ever,” George said of Farrell, “and the way that he has led the team off the back of the loss in Cardiff has been brilliant. He has definitely given us clear direction and driven us forward.”
One of the media managers intervened at this point to explain that they would not be answering any more questions about the situation at Saracens.
Talk turned, instead, to the England forwards’ bust-up with the Georgia pack in their training session in Oxford last week. George was happy to yak about that. “We don’t want to get into pushing and shoving,” he said, but the scrap has done them some good.
“As a pack we showed we have each other’s backs and we are tight as ever. After a loss sometimes you feel very isolated and naturally you are constantly thinking about yourself. ‘What did I do? What could I have done better’, and all the rest. The next thing you’re in a pretty heated session with the Georgians.
“I know the people to my left, right and behind me have got my back, so it’s definitely brought us closer together. [If] you see any white shirt being messed around with more often than not you’ll see 15 white shirts there pretty quickly and that’s the great thing about the team.”
George said that aside from rubbing up against Georgia, the team had spent a lot of time last week reflecting on the defeat to Wales. “It’s so important for us to learn from that and that’s certainly what we did in Oxford last week. The first couple of days that was what it was about, making sure that stuff doesn’t happen again. We are a team who want to play with tempo but no team are going to let someone play on their terms. So we’ve learned a bit.
“The big thing for us is that maybe we needed to get together and adapt quicker on the field. It was difficult because in the moment we felt we were still in control of the game. That is something we are going to reflect on and hopefully it doesn’t happen again.
“The big things is we know we need to put pressure on Wales to get results in both those games,” George added. “And the way we do that is obviously by winning both of our games and by putting in good performances, especially this weekend, so they’ll know for a fact that we’re right back on it and we’re desperate to win the championship. That will apply pressure on them.”
Mitchell confirmed Jack Nowell and Maro Itoje have “every chance of playing this weekend” despite their recent injuries, which will help.
