England to banish memories of Fiji jeers
Borthwick’s side vow to win back the Twickenham crowd Steward calls fans ‘heartbeat’ of team ahead of Wales clash
England are intent on winning back the Twickenham crowd when they face Wales on Saturday, as they attempt to banish any lingering memories of a dismal summer.
Steve Borthwick’s side return to the venue for the first time since August, when they went down 30-22 to Fiji in a World Cup warmup game. At best, the atmosphere that day could be described as indifferent towards the hosts, with boos and jeers marking the final whistle.
Although the defeat has not been mentioned during England’s preparations for the weekend, the experience clearly still hurts. Freddie Steward insisted that a refreshed squad, with a new captain in Jamie George, had “drawn a line in the sand”.
Steward started the Fiji game at full-back and would appear poised for a 33rd cap on Saturday. He called England fans the team’s “heartbeat” and is eager to earn the same level of support that characterised the raucous World Cup semi-final against South Africa.
“As players, when you play for England you are expected to win,” he said. “When you don’t win, understandably you don’t have the fans on your side and there was a bit of that in the warm-ups.
“During the World Cup, when we got to the semi-final, it felt like, ‘This is what it can be like’. As players, we want that all the time, but we have to put the performances on the field to earn that. They are the heartbeat of what we do.
“We want Twickenham to erupt and we want it to be a place we want to go and play in front of our fans and represent them.
“I would never blame the fans, and say they need to lift. They do that on the back of what we do, so the responsibility is ours.”
England avenged that first loss to Fiji at the World Cup itself, winning a tight quarter-final. Richard Wigglesworth, the England attack coach, now hopes to build on victory over Italy with another committed performance that engages those in attendance.
“Twickenham is a great place to play as England players,” he said.
“That context of that [Fiji] game is very different to this one. Twickenham is going to be a great place to play for our players, and we all know that in sport playing well and winning matches gets everyone behind that cause. So does playing with an incredible amount of passion, showing exactly what it means to play for England.
“Fans will have seen that from this group in Rome. Is it always going to be perfect? Are we anywhere near where we want to end up? No. But there is a team here you can get behind, because of how they go about their business on and off the field.” Meanwhile, England remain optimistic that Ellis Genge will recover from a foot injury to take on Wales, and hope to welcome Ollie Lawrence back to training this week. Lawrence, ruled out of the start of this Six Nations because of a hip issue, will not be available to feature on Saturday. He and George Martin are targeting the Calcutta Cup encounter against Scotland on Feb 24. That game will come too soon for Marcus Smith, however, and the fly-half ’s prospects of featuring in the Six Nations look bleak.
“Ellis took some part in training today and we are hopeful that he is available for the weekend,” Wigglesworth said. “But we’ve obviously got to get through the rest of the week.
“George Martin is in camp with us this week to rehab and is not available for the weekend. Ollie Lawrence is potentially coming in at the end of this week, maybe next week. Again, not available this weekend.”
Smith’s campaign is still in the balance because of the calf problem he picked up in training. “It looks like it will be further back in the tournament – if we get him back,” Wigglesworth said. “It won’t be in the next couple of weeks.”
Wigglesworth believes that Immanuel Feyi-waboso, the Cardiff-born wing who represented Wales Under-18s, would relish the chance to take on Warren Gatland’s charges. Feyi-waboso was handed his Test debut in a brief cameo from the bench at Stadio Olimpico, which was enough to demonstrate his carrying power and willingness to pressurise opponents in defence.
Borthwick has vowed to support Feyi-waboso, and Wigglesworth hinted that they would be prepared to select him in Saturday’s squad.
He said he thought Feyi-waboso would relish it. “You never know what’s going on inside someone’s head but the air he gives off is exactly that,” he said.
“It’s one of those things that when it gets brought up [you’re thinking], ‘Am I going to try and look for something where I wouldn’t have looked for it the week before?’ He’s taken it in his stride really well.”