England’s James Haskell describes job as hard labour but keeps up the laughs

An England player’s day ‘is full-on from 7.30am to when you stretch at nine at night’, says Haskell. Nothing, however, subdues the back-row’s ebullienceLittle did James Haskell guess when he ran out to play Uruguay in Manchester on 10 October 2015 that he and England would still be unbeaten 17 Tests and 518 days later. The World Cup dead rubber was widely seen as a fixture destined to go straight to video (or Montevideo in this case), notable only as Stuart Lancaster’s last stand. No one, Haskell included, imagined it would herald such a sparkling new dawn.No fewer than 14 of the match-day 23 …