BANNED OF BROTHERS
After dangerous hit on Smith, Hughes has him as a room-mate!
WHOEVER is in charge of England’s rooming plans clearly has a sense of humour, as Nathan Hughes discovered when he arrived in the Algarve for autumn training camp.
The Wasps No 8 found he was sharing with Harlequins fly-half prodigy Marcus Smith — the victim of a dangerous tackle which has left Hughes serving a twoweek ban for foul play. He saw the funny side of the arrangement, before Smith’s early departure from the camp with an injury.
‘We have been roomies here,’ said the Wasps forward. ‘We had a good laugh and he’s been ordering me around, which is what you get from a 10. I’ve been carrying his stuff around the camp!
‘We’ve played a bit of cards. Marcus is a really nice kid. We’ve been sitting in the lounge, ounge, having a chat about life and because I’ve been en here before he’s asked d me about the next session, if it’s going to be tough or whatever. It’s like a big brother talking to a little brother.
‘We’ve talked about t rugby more than about ut that incident. I wanted nted to complete the tackle.le I hit him on the shoulder and it’s always going to be David and Goliath. I’m 128kg and he’s 82kg, so the impact is going to be big. They gave me two weeks, so I just crack on.’
The big brother-little brother dynamic relates to the difference in Test experience, as well as in stature. Hughes has 10 caps and has been a fixture in the England squad for the last year, since the Fiji- born player qualified on residency. He has found his feet and his voice within the set-up, allowing him to offer guidance.
‘I know how he’s been feeling because I was new in the squad last year and I came here a bit shy,’ said Hughes.
‘I would be in the corner or sitting at the back in meetings. When you can share your experiences after being here a year and tell him to be open, it helps because as a fly-half he needs to be leading from the front and talking.’
Next week, Hughes will be expected to lead from the front against Argentina at Twickenham, with a starting role at the base of the scrum, in the enforced absence of Billy Vunipola.
Aside from the dangerous tackle, his rampaging display for Wasps against Harlequins in October signified a return to prime form just in time for the first Test window of the season.
Throwing his weight about to devastating effect is what Hughes does best, but he was acclaimed last month for calling for help from officials and medics at Sandy Park after his carry ca left Exeter rival and a new England team-mate t Sam Simmonds unconscious.
‘I carried into the Exeter E line and as I placed p the ball back, I heard he someone snoring,’ ing he said. ‘I quickly qu tried to get the attention attentio of the ref to stop the game. Yes, you go out there bashing each other, but the main focus is the safety of each other. It was just a quick reaction to help him and wait for the medics.’
Today, the All Blacks play at Twickenham, but they chose to avoid England, in favour of facing the Barbarians. That much-anticipated clash takes place in 12 months and it holds no fear.
‘When the time comes for us to play New Zealand, we’ll see who the best team is.
‘They’re beatable. They lost to Australia; they’re just another team.
‘They’re the No 1 team in the world, but that’s where we want to be,’ said Hughes.