GATLAND WON’T CLOWN AROUND
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Newcastle v N’thampton 3PM Sale v Wasps 3PM JAMES HASKELL is in full Terminator mode and ready to fly out of the blocks against Italy next weekend.
The Wasps flanker missed the autumn internationals with a toe injury and has been a bench bunny for the first two Six Nations games but is set to start next Sunday.
Haskell got 16 minutes off the bench against France and 32 against Wales as Eddie Jones’ famous ‘ finishers’ got England over the line.
The 31- year- old muscle man is England’s Arnold Schwarzenegger – and like Arnie in Terminator vowed he would be back.
And he is back – quicker and more agile than ever – and reckons he is rugby’s version of the androids in Terminator 2: Judgement Day.
He said: “I probably just move a bit better, I probably look more like a T-1000 as opposed to a wardrobe with a head – I move a little bit better but I don’t think I will be Usain Bolt any time soon.
“Eddie calls me an old man all the time so I don’t think he thinks I have got quicker. I have just worked very hard on my mobility.
“I run a fitness business and people get bogged down with the idea I spend all my time in the gym.
“I never do any bodybuilding training or anything like that. All my training is focused around mobility and being a better rugby player. That is what I have hammered hard.”
Haskell spent more than six months rehabbing his toe injury and tried almost everything to get fit.
He added: “When I’m injured I’ve tried to find the best people to work with.
“A lot of the time, when you’re a professional rugby player at a club you’ l l be given a programme, and that’s great.
“But if you want to go anywhere in life, you have to look a little bit outside the box.
“I ’ ve done weird and wonderful things. I’ve been tied to a treadmil l running backwards.
“I have done acupuncture, I have done electroacupuncture. LIONS boss Warren Gatland has warned his squad that New Zealand will try every circus trick in the book to win this summer’s Test series – on and off the pitch.
Gatland has already been slated Down Under with one paper mocking him up as a clown on their front cover after he said they were harsh doing the same to Aussie coach Michael Cheika. The All Blacks propaganda machine I try things but within reason. I am not going to get some bloke hook me up to his car battery and tell me he is going to electro-shock my toe back to life.
“But if someone told me there would be some sort of amazing thing that would work I would try it.”
Haskell, Danny Care and Ben Te’o have been part of the cavalry that has come off the bench to rescue England in the f i r s t two games but all three could will be in full swing by the time the Test series starts in June and Gatland – a Kiwi himself – knows what is coming.
He said: “It was a bit of a lesson for me. You criticise the New Zealand Herald and say they were a bit over the top drawing Cheika as a clown and they quickly turned round and drew me as a clown.
“I was disappointed with that, really upset, they could have at least made me a happy clown. Those are the start next weekend. Te’o scored the winning try against France less than two minutes after coming on and was in bulldozing form in Cardiff last week. And Jones has pulled a psychological masterstroke by labelling his bench boys ‘ finishers’ and not substitutes. Haskell added: “If there’s a group of guys that are always finishers, it gives us something to stay motivated. “Some people will say, ‘they’re bench players’, but for us we see ourselves as very important – and in a few of the games we have been. We take pride in that. “During the week once we find out the team – on Tuesday – then our attention turns to getting the star t i ng team prepared. “On game day we’re just trying to keep our energy up and stay motivated to get in the game and help change it.” challenges as a management team. If things are going too smoothly and things are going well there is always that potential for someone to look for a negative story, or there is a sting being done.
“We have got to be prepared for those sorts of things.”
Clive Woodward’s Lions dug their own grave in 2005 by having a massive squad with disillusioned players and ended up being spanked 3-0 and laughed out of town. Gatland added: “We are trying to go there and mend some stuff from 2005. We want to engage with the community and get the public on our side.
“We want to be great tourists and play some good rugby – that is not going to please everyone, but we have got to be aware that there could be some negatives thrown at us.
“It is how we deal with it and we will just make sure we are prepared for it.”