Gatland barred from training

EXCLUSIVE

ENGLAND have barred Lions head coach Warren Gatland from watching them train until after their clash with Wales next Saturday — and he will only be invited to an open session attended by school pupils. Eddie Jones’s players will begin their defence of the RBS Six Nations title today with the aim of claiming another Grand Slam and also demonstrating that many of them deserve places in the Lions squad to tour New Zealand. Gatland, the Wales coach who is on a year’s sabbatical to prepare for the Lions tour, will not be at Twickenham for the England-France game. Instead, he will watch Scotland’s match against Ireland before flying to Rome to attend Italy-Wales tomorrow. With England taking on Wales, who are under the command of interim head coach Rob Howley, in Cardiff next weekend, Jones has made it clear that Gatland won’t be allowed behind the scenes until after that potentially explosive fixture. ‘Warren is going to come in at some stage after the Wales game,’ said the Australian. ‘That will be fine — he is an experienced professional coach.’ Following a recent spying controversy in the English club game, when Tom Arscott was sacked by Sale after passing information to his brother Luke at Bristol, the issue of protecting sensitive information is high on the agenda. Asked if he had any concerns about spying in relation to a visit by Gatland and the sort of informationsharing that takes place on a Lions tour, Jones added: ‘No, no, and what they learn today is going to be different tomorrow.’ England have offered Gatland the chance to observe them in training on March 1, during one of the Six Nations ‘down’ weeks. However, that day they will be conducting an open session at a school and the Lions have expressed concerns about the value of such access.