England’s fallow weekend is not the ideal preparation it may seem

England have still to get their World Cup title credentials examined and probably need a tough game before the quarters• We are expanding our coverage of New Zealand. Please help us by supporting our independent journalism Back in the days when Wasps were showing everyone how to peak at the right time to win domestic and European titles, their coaching guru, Shaun Edwards, had a regular mantra. “To rest is to rust” he would repeatedly say and, 15 years on, we are about to discover if the same principle will influence the knock-out stages of this World Cup.Clearly sports science is more sophist…