Beefed-up Curry now ready, Eddie
INJURIES and missed Test matches are invariably bad news for a player, but perhaps not quite so bad for Tom Curry.
When Sale’s teenage flanker was named on the bench for the first match of England’s season against Argentina in November it should have been his launchpad to an exciting international campaign.
The previous summer he had turned the heads of the national team’s coaching staff in Argentina in becoming England’s youngest debutant since Jonny Wilkinson.
But two days before the Twickenham rematch with the Pumas, 19-year-old Curry hurt his left wrist in training at Pennyhill Park and a scan revealed he had dislocated a small bone. He underwent an operation that night and was ruled out of the autumn Tests and the Six Nations as well.
Sport is full of sliding doors moments and, with England flying at that point, handing over his place to Sam Simmonds appeared to be a bad career move. Funny how things turn out.
Inadvertently avoiding a so-so autumn and England’s worst championship since 1983 might just turn out to have been a very smart play.
After England’s breakdown collapse in the Six Nations, belligerent back-row forwards are a priority for Eddie Jones when he names his squad for next month’s South EXCLUSIVE Africa tour on Thursday. Curry, who lines up against Leicester at the AJ Bell Stadium today, spent the four months on the sidelines ensuring he still fits the bill.
“To be on the bench for your country and to get injured was massively frustrating, especially the first couple of weeks which were pretty difficult to handle. But these things happen for a reason and I reckon I’m stronger for it,” said Curry.
“I could either complain and sulk or make something out of it. I asked for clips of different backrow players so I was constantly learning. I took a look at Hamish Watson and John Barclay’s breakdown decision-making and technique after the Scotland game.
“I was able to work on stuff I wouldn’t have been able to do if I had been playing. My leg strength and power has gone up, I have put on 3kg and my body fat has gone down.
“When you’re in the gym injured it is very easy to think you are a bodybuilder rather than a rugby player but I was working my hamstrings and lower back so I can be stronger in a particular scenario.”
The idea is to become an immovable object over the ball. A month back into club rugby, a date with a desperate Leicester side in what is effectively a Champions Cup qualification shoot-out, will provide a decent litmus test for him.
Save for the boycott season of 1998-99, Leicester have been ever-present in the top tier of European club rugby since English teams
first joined the Heineken Cup in 1996-97 but they could miss out if results go against them today. That would represent disaster for them, especially if it happens to be Sale, a club with one of the smallest budgets in the league, who take their reserved place at Europe’s top table. “Steve Diamond has called it our cup final. It’s in our minds how important this game is. We know what is at stake,” said Curry. “Champions Cup is on the line and that is huge for us. Everyone wants to be part of the bigger games. The way the club is pushing forward and with the squad we will have next season, we want to be involved. “For us success would be a top-six finish but if we don’t make it I wouldn’t say the season would be a failure. “We know we have learnt a lot about ourselves and that will propel us into next season. “It might not come in the next month, it might not come in the next six months, but it is coming.”