Section:GDN 1N PaGe:50 Edition Date:190906 Edition:01 Zone: Sent at 5/9/2019 19:52 cYanmaGentaYellowbl
- The Guardian Friday 6 September 2019
(^50) Sport
Rugby union
England’s visit to northern
outpost is home for Wilson
T
hose who dismiss
England’s fi nal
World Cup warm-up
game against Italy as
irrelevant clearly do not
hail from a northern
postcode. For many the overdue
chance to see the national team play
a capped Test in Newcastle makes it
an auspicious occasion, one which
will hopefully encourage the Rugby
Football Union to stage further
games outside Twickenham.
If they need an example of
exactly why show ing the sport to aless familiar audience is so vitally
important they need only talk to
the England fl anker Mark Wilson.
In rugby terms the 29-year-old grew
up off the beaten track in Kendal.
For years he was a lonely teenage
road warrior, commuting to training
sessions at Newcastle Falcons. He
never made it to an England game at
Twickenham, partly because of the
exorbitant costs and partly because
“it was just too far”.
His only option was to watch
televised Six Nations games
from afar. “It was on BBC wasn’t
it ?” Wilson says. “Regardless of
whether you had Sky or not, you
could watch it.”
Hence the note of excitement in
his voice when asked how it will feel
to run out at St James’ Park tonight in
an (albeit red) England jersey.
“It’ll be massive. Throughout
my youth if you wanted to watch
England you had to go down toTwickenham to see them. For
families up north it’s quite a big
eff ort. I’m sure it’ll be pretty special
for young north-east kids who love
rugby to be able to go to St James’
Park and watch England play.”
Given Wilson’s family home in
Blaydon is now only a short taxi
ride away, he is also looking forward
to a rest from his normal long-
distance travelling routine after
Tests in the south. “The lads have
been having a joke with me because
I’m usually having to fl y back after
a game or catch the train. This time
I can sit smugly in my house onSaturday night while other people
do it ,” he says.
To cap it all, even Wilson’s
mother, Janice, will be putting in a
rare appearance. Her son has been
playing top-level rugby for years but
she has been seen in the stands only
on a handful of occasions.
“She hasn’t been to any of my
games at Twickenham. She’s a bit
of a wimp ... she doesn’t like big
crowds. With this one being in
Newcastle I don’t think she had
an excuse. I think the last time she
came was for my 200th game for the
Falcons two seasons ago.”
His wife Amy’s father, Andy,
will also be there, hoping for a
happier sequel to one of the family’s
favourite stories.
“My family back in Cumbria aren’t
massive football supporters but
Amy’s family had season tickets at
Newcastle. When Amy was a kid,
she won a competition on the radio
and the prize was to take a penalty at
Alan Shearer’s testimonial. She put
her dad forward: he’s a mad Geordie
who loves football.
“He went to the academy during
the week to practi se with Peter
Beardsley and was banging them
all in. But on the night of the game,
at half-time, there’s a diff erent
goalkeeper from the under-21s, who
comes up to him and says: ‘You’re
not going to score past me.’ Then
Andy took his penalty and missed.
I think he hit the post. As long as
I am more successful than him,
that’ll be all right.”
Should he happen to score a try
against Italy he will probably resist
a football-style celebration. “I can’t
do the Shearer one. I suppose I could
kick the hoardings down but I might
never play for England again.”
Instead he will be focus ed
on staking a claim for a place in
England’s increasingly competitive
starting back row, having fi nally
worked his way back to full fi tness
before the squad’s departure for
Japan on Sunday.
Given Wilson is now offi cially
listed as a Sale player, his loan
move a consequence of Newcastle’s
relegation from the Premiership
last season, it would be a fi tting end
to a rollercoaster year if he ends up
starting in England’s key World Cup
games. To do so he will have to hold
off the energetic challenge of the
younger Tom Curry and strike a blow
for the squad’s elder statesmen.“I’ve gone as far as Love Island but
I’ve not gone as far as Instagram. I
am probably just the boring old fart.”
As far as Eddie Jones and
an expected 50,000 crowd are
concerned, what matters rather
more is the manner in which
England attack their fourth and last
buildup challenge. Italy have not
named their strongest combinations
and, if their hosts are the side they
aspire to be, the scoreline could be
an infl ated one.
Should the debutant Bath winger
Ruaridh McConnochie and his
fellow fl yers Jonny May, Anthony
Watson and Joe Marchant be given
only fl eeting opportunities to
display their pace, the management
will be as disappointed as the
Geordie audience.
All concerned will also be praying
that untimely and depressing
injuries to key individuals, not least
Billy Vunipola and Owen Farrell,
are also safely sidestepped. If a
fi t, happy England can fl y east on
Sunday evening having left farewell
vapour trails across a raucous St
James’ Park, everyone save Italy
will be happy.Tropical cyclone
has World Cup
braced for havoc
Sexton back for Ireland as Wales
turn to Patchell for fi nal warm-up
Flanker enjoying short
commute to work and aims
to cement World Cup place
against Italy in NewcastleRobert KitsonA tropical cyclone head ing for Tokyo
has brought into focus the potential
disruption at the Rugby World Cup
with the prospect of cancelled games
causing havoc in the pool stage.
Tropical Storm Faxai is expected to
develop into a typhoon and may hit
Tokyo over the weekend or at the start
of next week, around 10 days before
the start of the competition. Tourna-
ment organisers have been bracing
themselves for weather disruption,as Japan averag es around 30 typhoons
and 1,500 earthquakes a year, but
Faxai’s potential arrival so close to the
start of the tournament underlines the
threat posed.
This time last year the biggest storm
for 25 years struck Kobe and Osaka,
both of which will be hosting World
Cup games.
Organisers have planned for the
possibility of having to relocate teams
from their bases or even to move
matches to diff erent venues but , if
a pool match is cancelled, tourna-
ment rules state that both teams will
be awarded two points – in eff ect
rendering the result a 0-0 draw.
That in turn could have a signifi cant
bearing on the fi nal standings in the
pool stage and even hamper some
teams’ chances of advancing to the
knockout stages. England are due to
depart for Japan on Sunday.England
Italy
Venue St James’ Park
Referee Ben O’Keeffe (NZ) 13°
TV Sky Sports Action Radio BBC 5 LiveToday 7.45pm World Cup warm-upEngland Italy
A Watson Bath 15 J Hayward Benetton
R McConnochie Bath 14 M Bellini Zebre
J Marchant Harlequins 13 G Bisegni Zebre
P Francis Northampton 12 T Benvenuti Benetton
J May Leicester 11 E Padovani Zebre
O Farrell Saracens (c) 10 C Canna Zebre
B Youngs Leicester 9 C Braley Gloucester
J Marler Harlequins 1 N Quaglio Benetton
J George Saracens 2 O Fabiani Zebre
D Cole Leicester 3 S Ferrari Benetton
J Launchbury Wasps 4 D Sisi Zebre
C Lawes Northampton 5 D Budd Benetton (c)
T Curry Sale 6 S Negri Benetton
M Wilson Sale 7 A Steyn Benetton
B Vunipola Saracens 8 J Tuivaiti Zebre
Replacements
L Cowan-Dickie Exeter
E Genge Leicester
K Sinckler Harlequins
C Ewels Bath
M Kvesic Exeter
W Heinz Gloucester
G Ford Leicester
J Cockanasiga BathReplacements
F Zani Benetton
A Lovotti Zebre
M Riccioni Benetton
F Ruzza Benetton
A Zanni Benetton
M Mbanda Zebre
G Palazzani Zebre
T Allan Benetton‘I’m usually having
to fl y or catch a train.
This time I can sit
smugly in my house
while others do it’
Gerard MeagherPaul ReesJohnny Sexton returns to the Ireland
side against Wales in Dublin tomorrow
after missing the fi rst three World Cup
warm-up games because of injury.
Both teams are far closer to full
strength than in Cardiff last weekend ,
as the two head coaches, Joe Schmidt
and Warren Gatland, lead their sides
on European soil for the fi nal time.
Ireland’s XV includes 10 of the
players who started this year’s Six
Nations match in Cardiff , while Wales
fi eld eight. Three of Ireland’s backs –Sexton, Robbie Henshaw and Keith
Earls – are all fi t again, little more
than two weeks before the opening
World Cup game against Scotland,
but Gatland has kept some of Wales’s
big-hitters – notably Ken Owens, Liam
Williams and Dan Biggar – on the
bench. It looks as if the 23 he selected
will be involved in their fi rst two
World Cup outings, against Georgia
and Australia.
Gatland and Schmidt announced
their World Cup squads this week
but the recent history of the fi xture,
which is invariably hard fought, sug-
gests there will be no signing of a
non-aggression pact, as players lookto avoid injury before the fl ight to
Japan. There is also the opportunity
to go into the tournament at the top
of the much-mocked world rankings.
“It is an important match, our
fi nal preparation ,” said Gatland. “ It’s
important we hit the ground running
in Japan and it is an opportunity for
players to put up their hands for spots
in the starting XV in the World Cup.”
Rhys Patchell starts at fl y-half for
Wales for the fi rst time since the tour
to Argentina last year. He missed a lot
of last season because of concussion
and a hamstring tear.
It will be the fi nal appearance at
the Aviva Stadium for the Ireland cap-
tain, Rory Best, who is retiring after
the World Cup. “It is not something I
have given a lot of thought to,” he said.
“It is all about performing and putting
ourselves in the best possible shape for
the game against Scotland.”▼ A teammate appears
to be in danger from Mark
Wilson’s heavy weight
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