Sarries’ twin hit
ENGLAND coach Chris Silverwood wants to wrap Mark Wood in cotton wool until he can be unleashed on Australia.
The sight of the 30-year-old bowling like the wind in back-to-back Test matches for the first time since 2017 was one of the great pluses from a hugely successful South Africa tour.
Wood hadn’t played since the World Cup Final in mid-July when he tore a muscle in his side, the latest in a long line of injuries.
Silverwood is now making his fitness over the next two years a priority so that he can hopefully pair the Durham speedster with Jofra Archer for the Ashes Down Under in 2021-22.
“We have to take it day by day with Woody,” said Silverwood. “Monitor him and make decisions based on what best for him.
“We have to look at the way he trains as well. We need to make sure he is not wasting deliveries in the nets.
“He does everything 100 per cent, so can we tailor his training to make sure his best efforts go out on the pitch?
“In an ideal world, I would have two or three fast bowlers kicking around so is they don’t have to play every game, so that when they need a rest we have the back-up.”
England will tour Sri Lanka in March before hosting West Indies and Pakistan this summer.
The next Ashes tour starts at the end of November next year and Wood is not the only bowler set to come under Silverwood’s watchful eye as he tries to build a battery of fast men to win back the urn.
The Yorkshireman added: “Craig Overton and Olly Stone are guys we are looking at for the Ashes.
“We have to nurture them and bring them through, it is a two-year project.
“We can look and say, ‘Do we have to play them all at the same time? Can we rotate?’” 6.47
SARACENS were last night hit with a further 70-point penalty – and the resignation of acting chief executive Ed Griffiths.
They had already been condemned to relegation for breaching the salary cap over four seasons.
But, as their England players try to focus on Sunday’s Six Nations clash against France, Premiership Rugby have hammered them again.
It takes their punishment to 105 points to make sure they finish bottom.
Having been hit with an initial 35-point deduction, and £5.4m fine, they are now on minus 77, 89 points adrift of Leicester.
Griffiths, appointed for 12 months to handle the fall-out, lasted just 26 days.
Joe Marler admitted the seven Saracens in the England squad had been subjected to “mickey taking” but that it had stopped after talks between the players.
“It has been parked,” said the prop.