NICK OF TIME
England call up Easter, 37, and fire back at Carling jibe
ENGLAND last night angrily denied accusations that players have been treated like ‘ schoolboys’, after calling up 37-year-old Nick Easter as a replacement for Billy Vunipola, whose World Cup is over.
Scan results revealed that Vunipola had strained knee ligaments in the defeat against Wales and he was promptly ruled out of the tournament, leading to an emergency summons for Easter — who was on the touchline at Twickenham as a pitchside summariser last Saturday.
The veteran No 8 arrived in the Red Rose camp to discover a mood of simmering unrest over criticism from another Harlequins icon, Will Carling.
The ex-England captain stirred up a storm yesterday by claiming in an interview with BBC 5 Live: ‘I got the sense England were panicking against Wales. I don’t blame Chris Robshaw — I blame the environment. We have a very prescriptive environment in the England team. It’s very classroom orientated.’
But England’s defence coach Andy Farrell rejected the criticism from Carling, saying: ‘It’s not fair to say the coaches are
like school teachers. It’s quite a player-led environment.’ In the interview Carling also said: ‘What we watched in the last 10 minutes against Wales was a confused debate between people who have never been given responsibility. We treated them as schoolboys.’ But in his stirring riposte, Farrell insisted: ‘I can honestly say this is the best coaching environment I’ve ever been involved in. ‘It is disappointing. We need everyone behind us this week. We need to batten down the hatches together. Let’s go for it. We are English, aren’t we? We are English.’ Farrell said that the squad were devastated for Billy Vunipola but that Easter came close to earning a place in the final 31-man squad anyway and he added: ‘Nick’s an experienced guy who has been there and done it. He’s been involved in some big games in World Cups and been successful.’ Of the other casualties, Ben Morgan is back in training and should be fit to face Australia on Saturday but Courtney Lawes won’t train until Thursday due to a knee injury and is destined to miss the clash, as is Ben Youngs. However, Jonathan Joseph should train today and flanker Tom Wood has escaped with just an official warning for kicking Liam Williams in the head. Meanwhile, the World Cup hosts have dropped to sixth in the world rankings. Wales are up to second.