England have set their sights on securing another whitewash in Australia, according to the scrum-half Harry Randall. England swept the board against the Wallabies in Eddie Jones’s first overseas tour as head coach six years ago and Randall is hoping the current crop can emulate the class of 2016.
History is on England’s side with Jones boasting an eight-match winning streak over Australia since taking charge, with the most recent victory an emphatic 32-15 triumph in November. England endured a disappointing Six Nations campaign since then, however, and will head into the series without a number of senior players, including Manu Tuilagi, Henry Slade and Kyle Sinckler, missing with injuries.
Players from the four teams contesting Saturday’s Premiership semi-finals may be absent but to illustrate the inexperienced nature of England’s current squad, 16 of the 35 taking part in this week’s training camp are uncapped. Indeed, Jack Nowell is the only member of the training squad who took part on the 2016 tour – Anthony Watson and Luke Cowan-Dickie travelled six years ago but are cin camp for rehab only. But Bristol’s Randall is optimistic they can get back to winning ways in Australia.
“It’s a great opportunity for us to go out there and hopefully beat them 3-0 again like the boys did in 2016,” he said. “It’s a massive challenge. They are a newish squad on the rise. What better way to challenge ourselves than against an up and coming Australia team.
“We’ll really look forward to that and embrace it. What an experience it would be going away and playing three Test matches out there. Everyone is striving to put their best foot forward and it’s massive motivation seeing what the boys did in 2016.”
Henry Arundell has revealed how a trip to the pub helped settle his nerves after his first call-up last month. Arundell has caught the eye with some stunning tries for London Irish, prompting Jones to select the 19-year-old flyer. He now looks primed for a first appearance against the Barbarians on 19 June and could play his way into the squad for the Australia tour.
“I was very nervous at first,” said Arundell, after being named Land Rover Discovery of the Season at the Premiership Rugby Awards. “Most guys who do go in feel like that. But a lot of players were very welcoming, more welcoming than I thought they would be, to be honest. You are going into the big dog zone and you think everyone will be horrible, but they are a great group of guys and really looking after me. We went to the pub on the Sunday and I sat with [Ellis] Genge and Marcus [Smith] and they were both really good to me, having a chat and calming the nerves.”
Tiffany Youngs, the wife of the former Leicester captain and England hooker Tom, and sister-in-law of the scrum-half Ben, has died after suffering from cancer, the Tigers have announced. Tiffany was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma in 2014 and went into remission in 2018. In October, Leicester announced Tom would be taking indefinite leave from the club to care for Tiffany and he confirmed his retirement in April.
Leicester said: “Leicester Tigers are deeply saddened by the news that Tiffany Youngs has passed away after her heroic battle with illness. On behalf of everybody at the club, we send our condolences to the Youngs and Sands families. Rest in peace, Tiffany.”
