Rugby Mad Blog

Mr Farrell’s training is coming along nicely, apparently. He’s been in full contact sessions with his team mates as well as hitting the tackle bags. But the boss Alan Gaffney says he won’t be ready until the Brisol game on 10th September. Pity, I was looking forward to seeing him run out at Twickenham in a week’s time. Oh well. Hilly’s also making great progress, and might be back on the park by the end of October.

Also, the coaching changes at HQ may possibly tempt Jason Billy Whizz Robinson out of international retirement. He’s certainly been flying for Sale at the end of last season. And if he stays in-form this year, who knows?

Here’s a picture of Jason the day after he announced his international retirement last autumn, playing for Sale against Sarries.

Last August, O2, sponsors of England Rugby, held the Scrum In The Park (you can see my photos here) event where the public could see the squad train and all sorts of other exciting stuff.

This morning, it occurred to me that we haven’t heard about a similar event for 2006, which is a great shame. Despite torrential showers last time, the crowd seemed to enjoy themselves and it was great to meet some of the players afterwards. Danny Grewcock signed my shirt for me – and I was still wearing it

There is an email address given on their website, so I thought I would ask if there are any plans for this year. A few minutes after sending it, I got a bounce – no such address as scrum@o2.com. Oh well.

Here’s Danny after last year’s training session, looking a little sweaty. No comment.

Spare a thought for the poor guys doing their strength and conditioning training in this heat. Apparently they can lose up to 4Kg per session, and the squad as a whole are getting through about 250litres of drinking water per day.