Haskell backing Jones over judo practice
JAMES Haskell has defended Eddie Jones’ use of judo in England’s controversial training camp in which Wasps team mate Sam Jones broke his leg and has revealed he was taught the martial art as a 17-year-old player at the England national academy in Bath.
While Haskell, 31, only watched the judo session in Brighton due to his toe surgery, the flanker will incorporate the martial arts training in his rehabilitation programme designed to get him back onto the pitch in December.
Jones held talks with Premiership directors of rugby about the Brighton camp, but the next one in January will almost certainly feature more judo.
The sessions will be overseen by Kate Howey, the British Olympic double medallist also used by former England coach Brian Ashton in 2002 to introduce the sport to the academy players, who included Haskell, current captain Dylan Hartley and Danny Cipriani.
Haskell has used various martial arts to help develop his rugby skills, including cage fighting and said: “I was gutted not to be able to take part in the judo as Kate, who took the session, worked with me when I was 17 years-old under Brian Ashton.
“Brian picked up on the way judo could be used to help our rugby and we did lots of that down at Bath University. I was there with Dylan Hartley, Danny Cipriani, Rob Webber, Ryan Lamb and Danny Care and we would practise judo in the morning with Kate and all the different tackle techniques. It is so invaluable and a great skill to harness and makes a massive difference.
“I am surprised more teams are not doing it. They use judo in the NRL in Australia and also jiujitsu to make sure you finish on top of an opponent. I have a couple of mates who do judo and so I will do some stuff with them and also wrestling to work on my tackle technique.”
Ashton, who coached England to the 2007 World Cup final said: “Using judo is not new in rugby. We were the first to do a number of different things in the academy and we also used judo in the build-up to the 2007 Rugby World Cup.”