England’s preparations for the Rugby World Cup final on Saturday hit a glitch with Eddie Jones’s backroom staff unable to use their drone to record training sessions because their Tokyo base is close to an airport.
England had to seek permission to use their drone from tournament organisers but they cannot do so in the buildup to their first final for 12 years as their training facility, situated near to Tokyo Stadium, is next door to Chofu airport.
The drone is primarily used by the coaches to review training sessions and is a key part of England’s preparations when they are based in Bagshot during the Six Nations or autumn internationals.
Throughout England’s World Cup campaign Jones and his coaches have repeatedly talked of the importance of the players’ work off the ball and that aspect of the games was highlighted when the cutting-edge technology was introduced to their training sessions in November 2016.
At the time, Jones said: “The drone is fantastic for us. It’s another piece of technology that helps us accelerate the programme, allows us to have another piece of vision that sees how well we work off the ball and in rugby, work off the ball is just so important.”
