Sushi power will put Kyle on a roll
ENGLAND will be fuelled by a sushi mountain when they take on Japan at Twickenham on Saturday.
Eddie Jones’ side are using this Test as a trial run ahead of the first World Cup to be staged in Asia next year.
As well as a compressed four-day training week to mirror the gap between their first two fixtures at the 2019 tournament, they have also been grazing on specialised cuisine.
A Japanese chef was brought in to the team’s Pennyhill Park base on Tuesday night for a sushi evening complete with mandatory chopsticks.
“It was a weird one. I didn’t know if it was a test or not – you never know with Eddie,” said prop Kyle Sinckler.
“There were loads of plates of sushi and all the fat boys were looking at each other and saying, ‘Is this play on?’
“I didn’t want to indulge too much. I had a bit but there was a point where we had to say no, because Wednesday is normally our hardest session of the week and you don’t want to be running round with two kilos of sushi just sitting in you.”
The piles of sushi provided comfort food for players still getting over the narrow defeat by the All Blacks on Saturday. It was a near-miss which, because it came against the world champions, stung more than most.
“If I’m being honest, I’m still trying to get over the loss at the weekend,” said Sinckler. “You put so much emotional energy into it. It was such a big game, so to come that close and lose out was a tough pill to swallow.
“As I’ve got older, I can kind of get over it over a couple of days, but when you realise the magnitude of the game and what it means to all of us as Englishmen, how close we were, it probably does take that extra day or two.
“We were so close, and, in my opinion, we should definitely have won.”
Still, the combative 17st 11lbs prop does have some fond memories of the game.
“One of the things I love about rugby is you can always let some frustration out in a tackle. Jack Goodhue felt that at the weekend, which is nice. I heard his ribs crack a little bit,” he said.
“As a tight-head your bread and butter is your scrums, so you have got to take a good scrum against a good pack like New Zealand. But it is nice to get in their faces a bit and give them a taste of their own medicine.”
It was New Zealand that was the making of Sinckler through his elevation to the Lions’ Test squad ahead of Dan Cole, the man he has replaced now as England’s starting prop. But the 18 months since that tour – which ended with the Harlequin in an Auckland police cell for a disorder offence – have not all been plain sailing.
“It has been quite tough,” Sinckler admitted. “It’s coming from that high of doing everybody proud as a squad by drawing the series to now not being that unknown quantity. “Every time in the Premiership someone wants to get one up on me because I’m a Lion and it’s a big scalp.
“That took some adjustment. Last season I let my frustrations get the SCOTLAND coach Gregor Townsend ranks Saturday’s opponents South Africa above England as a scalp for his team. The Calcutta Cup win in February is a victory of which Townsend is hugely proud but he believes that downing the Springboks at Murrayfield would be an even bigger achievement. “Given what South Africa have done recently, it would best of me, I got in trouble, got a bit of a ban [seven weeks for eye gouging] and then got injured just before the Six Nations. It was a tough old ride but you learn who you are as person and what you believe in. Looking back I’m happy with how I dealt with things.
“I have made some mistakes along the way and will probably still make some mistakes, but it’s just about learning from them.”
Sinckler is learning to rein in his excesses but the fires inside will always burn. Jones’s declaration that he wants England to “smash” Japan probably be our biggest win in the last couple of years,” said Townsend.
“Obviously England stands out as such a memorable win. The fact they had won so many games in succession and that trophy we play for makes it even more special.
“But South Africa are in the top two or three teams in the world with the way they play against the best teams in the world. Going to New Zealand and beating them, almost beating was a message made to measure for him.
“That is music to my ears,” he said. “You have to be ruthless when you play Japan. I am buzzing to get out there and show our fans how much it means to us and get a good result.
“It’s all about the team in whatever role Eddie wants me in – starting, off the bench or helping the chef out.”
Saturday’s fixture, meanwhile, has come too soon for Manu Tuilagi, who is now set to make his England comeback in the final autumn Test against Australia on Saturday week.
The Leicester centre was due to make his first appearance since 2016 in the win over South Africa but suffered a groin strain in training. them a second time, showing what they were capable of last week against France as they came from behind to get a great win – that all shows they are going to be a tough team to beat.
“We get physical challenges in the Six Nations with the likes of England and France and Ireland but any coach will tell you that the biggest physical challenge is South Africa. It always has been.
“They have evolved their game since Rassie Erasmus took over as coach but they have not gone away from the forward pack. They select the biggest and strongest men they can find.”
Townsend yesterday brought in his own heavy artillery for the game.
Jonny Gray and Ben Toolis are back in the starting line-up and he has picked a third second-row at flanker in Exeter’s Sam Skinner.
Prop Gordon Reid, hooker Stuart McInally and flanker Hamish Watson return to the pack with centre Huw Jones also added to the side who beat Fiji 54-17 last weekend.