Friday Round-Up
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Friday Round-Up
'England must seize trophy chance' - Hartley
England captain Dylan Hartley says his side must seize on their chance to win the 6 Nations this year.
England go into this weekends game with Wales knowing that a win secures the Triple Crown, but Hartley wants more.
"The older guys are worried about walking away without winning anything big," said the 29-year-old hooker.
"We're running out of time. I want to leave with something substantial."
England's last championship win came back in 2011, but a win could setup Eddie Jones to win his first trophy as England boss inside a year.
Hartley knows England have a great chance of winning the Grandslam, a title which has eluded England since 2003.
"It's talking to the young guys about not just drifting through this opportunity we've got now," Hartley added.
"The time is now for them to win something. Don't wait five or six years, because you might not ever get the chance.
"We've been runners-up for the last four years, so we were lacking something minuscule. It may be that mental edge.
"At the time, 2011 was weird, an anti-climax. We'd been thrashed by Ireland and then we got given the trophy.
"When you've been in and out of an England shirt like me, when you look back at things, what are you going to say you've achieved?
"At the time when we won that, I didn't feel I enjoyed it. Was I too young? Was I too immature? Or was it because of the loss? So I want to make sure we win something and I enjoy it."
'Wales scrum illegally' - Jones
Eddie Jones has broken his silence ahead of the Wales game by responding to Wales' comments about the scrum.
The Wales camp have targeted Joe Marler ahead of Saturday's massive clash, saying that Joe Marler scrummages illegally.
Jones leaped to defence of Marler and went on the attack at Wales.
“What Wales do, they play the laws very well. I’m quite upset about the way they scrummage.
"They scrummage illegally. They pre-engage all the time which is against the laws of the game.
“What happens in a game of rugby is that they pre-engage because they don’t want the contest at the start of the scrum.
“They get penalised one or two times at the start of the scrum, but then they get sick of penalising them because if the referee keeps penalising them, then the referee gets criticised.
“We really want to have a scrum contest on Saturday as that’s an important part of the game, so we’re really hopeful the referee enforces the law in that area.”
When asked if Wales had been scrumming illegally in this years 6 Nations, Jones didn't hold back.
“Absolutely 100 percent. Terribly illegally," he continued.
"You’re not allowed to pre-engage, that’s part of the law. But they do it and they consistently do it, but they only get penalised at the start of the game because if you’re Wayne Barnes or Craig Joubert and you keep penalising Wales for pre-engaging, then what will all the smart guys in the commentators box say?
“They’ll say the referee is ruining the game, but the referee isn’t ruining the game, it’s the team that is scrummaging illegally that’s ruining the game.
“We want the referee to be really hard and if he wants to ruin the game, then he has to ruin the game.
“We’ve got the strongest scrum, so we want proper scrum laws. We want the laws enforced and if they are enforced we’ll get an advantage in that area.”
