KOOKY CURRY!

Madcap, sleepwalking, cat-loving flanker is now the butt of England jokes

PUT aside the serious point about Tom Curry, that he has adapted superbly to a new backrow role for England, and there has been good news and bad news for the Sale flanker at this World Cup. The good news is that he appears to have stopped sleepwalking. The bad news is that no-one wants to visit one of Tokyo’s cat cafes with him, and teammates could be fined if they join him for lunch. He is the younger of Eddie Jones’s ‘Kamikaze Kids’. In fact, the 21-year-old is the youngest forward ever to represent England at a World Cup. Curry’s move from his natural openside berth to blindside has allowed the development of a promising partnership with Sam Underhill. Yesterday he paid tribute to the mentoring provided by England team manager and former World Cup-winning No 6, Richard Hill, but was far more open about his status as a rookie who is the butt of jokes. He is emerging as a pack version of Jonny May — a character who generates good-natured amusement. Let’s address the good news first. Curry has received promising reports about an end to recent nocturnal habits. Players share rooms and Underhill was asked whether he had been paired with Curry. He replied: ‘I would hate to room with him because he sleepwalks. He had one night with George Ford before he had to be moved — he was sleepwalking so much and just being a nuisance. He was in front of a TV, trying to knock it over.’ Curry admitted he had been sleepwalking during the summer, saying: ‘I tried to walk out of the room, but I didn’t get out of it, I walked into the TV. I didn’t realise I had that issue, I thought it was more my brother (Sale flanker Ben). It happens occasionally.’ Well, it hasn’t happened in Japan according to his latest room-mates. ‘I have had five-star reviews from George Kruis and Billy Vunipola,’ he said. Now for the bad news. None of Curry’s teammates will indulge one of his interests. He said: ‘I am a big cat fan. I would like to go to a cat cafe at some point. There was a cat shrine in Miyazaki that no-one wanted to go to. ‘Everyone said no to that. It might have been the company though!’ That leads to the other bad news. He and Underhill together are off-limits at lunchtime. Joe Marler presides over a fines system and anyone who joins the flankers for a bite to eat will have a price to pay. ‘We are both a bit different,’ said Curry. ‘He is a bit calmer. He is very relaxed and chilled. I am a bit less relaxed and chilled. That’s the biggest difference. Apart from that, we are both pretty weird. ‘One of the fines is for taking Sam and me for lunch. It probably doesn’t reflect too well on us!’ Jones won’t care if they are weird. The head coach trialled the partnership during the warm-up matches last month and it worked. Since then, Curry has continued to operate at blindside, with shrewd guidance from Hill. Australia have often deployed two traditional ‘fetchers’ — Michael Hooper and David Pocock — in tandem, and now England have their own version of that scavenging double-act. ‘I feel the game has moved into another cycle of contestability,’ said Jones. ‘Referees want low penalty-counts and when you have low penalty-counts, it means you have a high contest. We thought, “How can we be best equipped in that area?” Curry is big enough to play six. He’s got the sense to play six. We thought we’d give him a go in the World Cup warm-up games. He’s adjusted really well to it.’ Encouraged by the evidence so far, Jones yesterday selected the Kamikaze Kids together again, in a powerful lineup to confront Argentina. England reverted to the midfield axis of George Ford, Owen Farrell and Manu Tuilagi while Joe Marler kept his place at loosehead prop, despite Mako Vunipola becoming available again.