England 's preparations for Saturday's Six Nations win over Wales suffered an unforeseen setback last week when an entire forward pack's worth of internationals got stuck in an elevator.
The incident occurred at Chelsea Harbour Hotel and Spa on the night of February 15, and the local fire service was called upon to prise Eddie Jones ' men out of their sauna-like sweat box.
Sale Sharks talisman Tom Curry in particular allegedly struggled to deal in the enclosed space, so much so that he "nearly had a panic attack" amid fears he and his team-mates would run out of air.
Or at least that's according to team-mate Jack Nowell, who was fortunate not to be among that number but had the low-down on what occurred during their 90-minute imprisonment.
The Exeter Chiefs star appeared on a recent episode of the RugbyPass Offload Podcast and delved into the details of the debacle, revealing Curry in particular struggled with the claustrophobic conditions.
“The boys got stuck in that lift in Chelsea Harbour last week, that was brutal,” explained Nowell. “Nine of them or something got 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 [Tuilagi] in there, Courtney [Lawes], [Luke Cowan] Dickie, Curry, Will Stuart and they were under the weight [elevator maximum lifting capacity], they said."
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Sale prop Bevan Rodd, Bath lock Charlie Ewels and Harlequins utility Joe Marchant were also among the marooned group.
Podcast regular and Bristol Bears prop Max Lahiff interrupted by questioning how such a group squeezed under the weight limit, joking "it's not Noah's Ark, it's an elevator," but Nowell insisted they weren't over capacity.
“They got stuck in there and they were in there for about an hour and a half in the end," the Exeter talisman continued. “They said it was like a sauna in there. They reckon it was about 90 degrees.
"And they couldn’t sit down either. There was no room in there, so they were like sardines stood up. Tom Curry nearly had a panic attack in there. He thought it was a vacuum or something. He thought they were going to run out of air."
The incident at least didn't affect their fortunes at Twickenham, where England held off a late surge from Wales to emerge as 23-19 winners in the third round of this year's Six Nations.
Of the group that got caught in the lift, Curry, Lawes, Cowan-Dickie and Ewels started against Wayne Pivac's side, while Stuart and Marchant appeared off the bench.
As one can imagine, a group of rugby internationals averaging somewhere around 110 kilograms in weight can generate quite a bit of heat in such a confined space.
“They were absolutely sweating in there," added Nowell. "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, because it cost the hotel something. He said ‘I’ll just ring the engineer and get him out’. Remember, it’s like 10pm at night, so the engineer's probably tucked up in bed. So in the end they rang the SOS on Manu’s phone."
England Rugby posted a video earlier in February 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.
The players will be particularly wary of any lift weight restrictions as they prepare to conclude their Six Nations with back-to-back games against Ireland (at home on March 12) and France (in Paris on March 19).
