Section:GDN 1N PaGe:38 Edition Date:190808 Edition:01 Zone: Sent at 7/8/2019 20:32 cYanmaGentaYellowbl
- The Guardian Thursday 8 August 2019
(^38) Sport
Rugby union
Sport
In brief
Golf
Tour ban for Olesen
after assault charge
Thorbjørn Olesen has been
suspended from the European Tour
after being charged with sexual
assault, being drunk on an aircraft
and common assault. The Ryder
Cup winner will appear in court on
21 August following his arrest last
Monday after he returned from
the WGC St Jude Invitational on a
fl ight from Nashville to London.
A spokesperson for the European
Tour said: “Thorbjørn Olesen has
been suspended from the European
Tour pending the outcome of legal
proceedings. As this remains an
ongoing legal matter, we are unable
to make any further comment at
this time.” PA Media
Boxing
Warrington to make
title defence in October
Josh Warrington will make the third
defence of his IBF featherweight
title against the Frenchman Sofi ane
Takoucht on 12 October at the
First Direct Arena in Leeds. The
Leeds fi ghter retained his crown
at the same venue with a split
decision points victory over fellow
Yorkshireman Kid Galahad in June.
Warrington had been chasing a
unifi cation bout but will instead take
on 33-year-old Takoucht who has
won 35 of 39 professional bouts and is
fourth in the IBF rankings. PA Media
Josh Warrington will
fi ght Sofi ane Takoucht
in Leeds in October
Watson reaps the benefi t of some
elementary advice from his father
As doubts continue to linger over Jack
Nowell’s fi tness for the World Cup,
Eddie Jones has the brutal honesty of
Anthony Watson’s father to thank for
ensuring his wing ranks are not fur-
ther depleted. Nowell’s place on the
plane to Japan remains in jeopardy but
Watson is back to full fi tness and looks
set for his fi rst England appearance
in 18 months this weekend after his
father Duncan’s “kick up the backside”
during his lengthy injury lay-off.
Watson tore his achilles at the end
of the 2018 Six Nations and needed
surgery a second time after ruptur-
ing it again four months later during
an NFL photoshoot. A niggling quad
injury further delayed his comeback
until April but, after three appearances
for Bath, Jones saw fi t to include the
25-year-old in his World Cup plans in
June. Doubts were raised when Jones
then sent him for a week’s conditioning
in Loughborough with the sprint coach
Jonas Dodoo last month while the rest
That was a real kick up the backside.”
It was not Watson’s fi rst long-term
injury lay-off , having been sidelined
with a broken jaw and debilitating
hamstring injury in recent years, but
his struggles during his recovery are
nonetheless entirely understandable.
Equally so is just how much Jones will
want him at his disposal in Japan.
The 2003 World Cup winner Jason
Robinson was at England’s hotel yes-
terday , off ering a timely reminder that
in terms of devastating footwork Wat-
son is the closest among the current
crop by way of comparison.
But is he as quick as he was before
injury struck? “Everyone wants to
of the squad gathered in Bristol but,
after returning for the recent camp
in Treviso, he is set to face Wales in
England’s fi rst World Cup warm-up
match on Sunday.
All going well at Twickenham, he
seems sure to be named in Jones’s fi nal
31-man World Cup squad on Monday
but Watson admitted Japan could
have been beyond him without a few
home truths via text message. “There
were a few days, over the 13 months
... I had two or three days where I was
particularly like ‘this is a nightmare’,”
said Watson. “But I think the quicker
you can snap out of those days, snap
out of those moods and try to focus on
what you’re trying to achieve, then the
better you are for it.
“I texted my dad saying I was strug-
gling and he just replied, ‘ Mate, you’ve
got to get on with it or you’ll never play
rugby again,’ and I was just like ‘Wow ,
you can never hit more home than
that.’ It’s so black and white but it’s so
true, if you really want to play rugby
again you’ve got to do everything you
can to get back playing rugby again.
You can’t just sit and mope around.
Anthony
Watson is put
though his paces
before England’s
World Cup
warm-up match
with Wales
PETER CZIBORRA/
ACTION IMAGES VIA
REUTERS
Gerard Meagher
know the stats, don’t they? Yeah, I
can safely that they’re close to that, if
not there. I’d defi nitely like to improve
still. That week I had with Jonas away
from camp was hugely benefi cial for
me. I came back feeling a lot better. It
was slow progress. With an achilles
it’s very variable, so it was just dealing
with those days when you thought it
was all going so smoothly and when
it’s not going so smoothly.”
Watson waxes lyrical about Dodoo
having decided that, so early into his
comeback when Bath’s season came
to an end, he ought to undertake a
three-week training programme with
the coach who lists the Olympic gold
medallist Greg Rutherford among his
previous clients, before joining up
with England. When asked to do so
again last month, however, Watson
feared the worst. “At fi rst I was a bit
sketchy, not being with the lads was
defi nitely sketchy but when I had it
explained to me why I was going up
there and what it was for, and then on
the back of the week ... I didn’t see it
right at the start it was defi nitely the
best thing that could have happened.
[Jonas] just explains running in a fas-
cinating way. His cues to help his ath-
letes get better are second to none.”
As far as Nowell is concerned, mean-
while, England are likely to delay a
fi nal decision on whether he goes to
the World Cup but the chances of him
featuring in any of their warm-ups
are increasingly slim and it would be
no surprise to see Jones retain addi-
tional cover when naming his squad
on Monday. “It’s ongoing,” the England
assistant coach, Neal Hatley, said. “He
saw the specialist last week and is in
with us this week now. We’ll make the
decision that we can closer to the time
with all the information that we have.”
England
Sunday Wales (h) 2pm
Sat 17 Aug Wales
(a) 2.15pm
Sat 24 Aug Ireland
(h) 3pm
Fri 6 Sep Italy
(h, Newcastle)
7.45pm
Ireland
Saturday Italy (h) 2pm
Sat 24 Aug England
(a) 3pm
Sat 31 Aug Wales
(a) 2.30pm
Sat 7 Sep Wales (h) 2pm
Scotland
Sat 17 Aug France
(a, Nice) 8pm
Sat 24 Aug France
(h) 1.10pm
Sat 31 Aug Georgia
(a) 5pm
Fri 6 Sep Georgia
(h) 7.30pm
Wales
Sunday England (a) 2pm
Sat 17 Aug England
(h) 2.15pm
Sat 31 Aug Ireland
(h) 2.30pm
Sat 7 Sep Ireland (a) 2pm
Warmup fi xtures
Anthony Watson
England
‘If you really want
to play again,
you can’t just sit
and mope around’
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