Georgia to remain on England minds for training – Borthwick
ENGLAND forwards coach Steve Borthwick has played down as routine “pushing and shoving” the clashes that took place between England and Georgia players during training on Wednesday.
It was reported that the session, at St Edward’s School in Oxford and watched by young pupils, became so heated that punches were thrown and the two groups had to be separated.
Georgia had been invited to join preparations for the March 9 Six Nations fixture against Italy, and did so again yesterday despite what had unfolded the day before.
Borthwick said: “As sometimes happens in training there was some pushing and shoving and that’s about it. You get on with the next scrum.
“It was a good session and (yesterday’s) was a good session as well.
“The guys scrummed hard against each other, there was some pushing and shoving, which happens in rugby.
“It happened quite a lot throughout my career, a bit of pushing and shoving that settles down and you get on with what you need to do.
“That’s part of what happens at rugby, people compete hard against each other, and then shake hands and get on with things.
“The guys trained against each other, trained hard again (yesterday), shook hands and thanked each other for the training experience, for the session, which is great.”
Asked if they would reconsider further invitations to Georgia, Borthwick responded: “We’re always looking at what the best training’s going to be for us going forward, and these two days have been excellent; really good for the team.”