English face investigation over tunnel fight
ENGLAND could be investigated for a reported fight between players in the Murrayfield tunnel before their Calcutta Cup defeat yesterday.
It was claimed that England playmaker Owen Farrell had become involved in a bust-up as the teams made their way back to the dressing rooms from the warm-up.
John Barclay was originally said to have been the peacemaker, but after becoming the first Scotland captain to lift the Calcutta Cup in ten years in a 25-13 victory, he insisted: ‘I heard about this but I was in the toilets!
‘I was first in after the warm-up to relieve myself, so I don’t know how much of it’s true or what happened. It maybe gets played up, made more than what it was. The intensity and quality of the play mattered — not that.’
The scuffle was reported by BBC staff in the tunnel at the time and seemed to have been picked up by Murrayfield supporters, with Farrell booed early on in the game.
England head coach Eddie Jones stated that he was not aware of it either and challenged journalists to provide evidence.
‘I’ve been pretty busy. Are you aware of it? If you can show it to me after the press conference, we can have a chat about it,’ he said. ‘In all seriousness, I don’t know about it. If there was, we shouldn’t let that detract from a great Scotland victory. Don’t get distracted by other things.’
England were exposed at the breakdown, with the back-row presence of Barclay, Hamish Watson and Ryan Wilson killing off countless attacks from turnover ball.
‘We knew they’d go hard at the breakdown,’ added Jones. ‘If you look at how Scotland contested the breakdown, it’s not just their back row. The breakdown’s not one or two people’s responsibility. That was rugby 15 years ago. Everyone has to be able to contest and we just weren’t good enough in that area. Any time we got momentum, they were able to turn us over or get a penalty.’