WE’LL DO IT FOR JACK
England fired up by ‘horrifying’ injury to Willis
ENGLAND’S rugby stars have found extra motivation to beat Wales by pledging to ‘Do it for Jack’.
Eddie Jones’ side head to Cardiff a week today needing victory to stay alive in the Six Nations title race.
Scrum-half Dan Robson says seeing Jack Willis’ season ended so cruelly by injury against Italy has fired up the team.
“It was pretty horrifying,” said Robson, recalling how his Wasps pal cried out in pain as he was rolled out of a ruck, wrecking ligaments in his knee.
With no fans in the stadium, Willis’ shriek echoed around Twickenham, upsetting players on both teams.
“That moment Jack screamed out was probably the worst I have had in a long time on a rugby field,” Robson said. “It was pretty devastating for him and tough for me, being a team-mate who had seen him go through that process before (returning from long-term injury).
“As a team we said straight away, ‘Let’s go out and finish it for him’ and wanting to go on and get Jack a medal is definitely something we’ve talked about, and will probably continue to, to give us extra motivation.”
Wales-England is not a fixture either nation traditionally struggles to get up for and you would not expect this to be any different.
Not with Wayne Pivac’s unbeaten side 80 minutes from a Triple Crown and the visitors aware them doing that would end their own title defence.
However, Jones admits England are suffering from the drop in aggression that is evident across rugby and football due to the absence of spectators.
“If you look at our first performance against Scotland, we lacked our normal aggression, we lacked our normal go-at-them type of game,” he said. “We were a little bit better against Italy, but still not where we need to be.” Robson accepts there is “no easy solution” and that each player has to find a way to get themselves right for
kick-off. He said: “If you are used to getting that buzz from walking off the coach and seeing thousands of fans cheering you and singing the national anthem with another 80,000 people, if that’s your kind of in, you’re going to have to work pretty hard on finding something else because it’s not an option at the minute.”
Two years on from his debut, Robson has still to unseat Test centurion Ben Youngs but is pushing harder than ever for his first start.
“Before I was maybe perceived as an impact player,” he added. “I feel my game is now in a better place.”
THE Duke of Sussex has relinquished his roles as a patron of the Rugby Football Union and Rugby Football League.
The announcements come after Prince Harry and wife Meghan confirmed they will not be returning as working members of the royal family.