England winger Jack Nowell has explained how preparation for their Six Nations clash with Wales got off to a bad start when a number of Eddie Jones' squad got stuck in a lift for nearly an hour and a half.
Chelsea Fire Brigade were called out after the players found themselves stuck for 90 minutes in a lift at the Chelsea Harbour Hotel and Spa after going out for food on February 15 - just over a week before their win over Wayne Pivac's side.
The interior of the lift got so hot that the players were forced to strip down to their underwear for a significant proportion of their unexpected stay.
Courtney Lawes, Manu Tuilagi, Joe Marchant, Luke Cowan-Dickie, Will Stuart, Bevan Rodd and Tom Curry were among those who found themselves in the sticky situation, with Nowell revealing that Curry nearly had a panic attack.
“The boy got stuck in a lift in Chelsea Harbour, that was brutal,” Nowell told the RugbyPass Offload Podcast. “Nine of them were stuck in the lift. We’d just gone out for food or something and we’d got back quite late.
“They weren’t nine of the small boys, they were nine pretty big lads. You’ve got Manu in there, Courtney, Dickie, Curry, Will Stuart and they were under the weight [elevator maximum lifting capacity], they said.
“They got stuck in there and they were in there for about an hour and a half in the end.
“They said it was like a sauna in there. It was like 90 degrees. And they couldn’t sit down either.
“They were like sardines stood up. Tom Curry nearly had a panic attack. He thought it was a vacuum or something. He thought they were going to run out of air.
“They were absolutely sweating in there. You saw the pictures. They were dripping with sweat.
“They managed to prise one of the doors open a little bit and stick one of the boys’ flip flops in there, so they had a bit of a breeze come in.
“They called reception but the reception guy didn’t want to ring the firefighters.
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"He said ‘I’ll just ring the engineer and get him out’. Remember, it’s like 10pm at night, so the engineer is probably tucked up in bed. So in the end they rang the SOS on Manu’s phone.
“They rang the police and who then rang the England security guy, who then rang the firefighters and stuff."
England Rugby have subsequently posted a video of Curry, Stuart, Marchant, Ewels and Rodd dropping by Chelsea fire station to present a jersey to some of those who helped them escape their confinement.
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