Eddie puts me in spin to land win No.10 for the RFU

SO what is it like to be just another statistic in the Eddie Jones sporting success story?

Well, thanks for asking. All I can say is that I don’t remember the ball significantly turning and, in fact, I was through the shot so early I could have taken the time to ask him a few questions while his alleged offbreak headed towards my pads.

Having already turned him around the corner for a single to get off the mark and show the England head coach who was boss, I was confident of smearing my next opportunity to the square leg boundary. I got it partly right. I smeared it off the toe of the bat and it travelled very slowly to the bloke standing at square leg who refused to do the right thing and took the catch.

It gave Eddie, above, his only wicket for the RFU X1 as they trounced the Rugby Writers Club team – which batted all the way down to No16 thanks to some selection vagaries – by 51 runs. We were agonisingly close to three figures but fell just short.

The RFU team, featuring some notable ‘ringers’, made 150 which included 30 from Eddie who was dropped four times after flying in from Barcelona for the T20 match.

It was clear from the start that England’s rugby Messiah would settle for nothing less than a tenth successive win since taking over as head coach in December.

His record now stands at nine rugby international victories and one cricket triumph and his smile was just a broad at Old Deer Park as when the Cook Cup was handed over following the historic 3-0 trouncing of the Wallabies.

Now, the rugby writers know exactly how Micheal Cheika and his men felt.