You rugby evening headlines for Saturday, February 19.
Healey fires back at Jones
Former England international Austin Healey has fired back at current boss Eddie Jones as their spat rumbles on.
Things kicked off last week when Healey questioned whether Jones was getting the most out of his players and branded the decision to replace Marcus Smith 'a coaching mistake'.
England were leading at the time but ended up on the wrong end of the scoreline at Murrayfield.
After beating Italy, Jones responded by demanding to know who wrote Healey's Telegraph column and saying England's win in Rome left him with egg on his face.
Not one to back down, Healey has now gone again in his Telegraph column.
“Eddie, as an Englishman I’m always happy to see my country win, it fills me with pride," wrote Healey.
"My concern was driven by the coaching mistakes we all saw against Scotland. I’m not sure what you were asking of me Eddie but I suggest you either stop making mistakes (and I’m here to offer help with that) or stop reading the press.
"I’m not sure you will be happy if you continue to do both!”
Bok legend slams Etzebeth
Springbok icon Bakkies Botha has panned current star Eben Etzebeth after the latter announced he'd be leaving Toulon next season to join the Sharks back in South Africa.
Etzebeth, who will undoubtedly join the pantheon of great locks when he calls it a day, will be released from his contract in France a year early come the end of this season, enabling him to return home.
The lock's time at the club has not always run smoothly and he was branded a 'handicap' by club president Bernard Lemaître last month due to his huge salary and the fact he has been largely unavailable due to injury and international duty.
With the club currently sitting 13th in the Top 14 league table, Botha, who was a fan favourite during his time at the Stade Felix Mayol, took aim at his fellow countryman.
In a translated interview with Midi Olympique, Botha said: “Eben Etzebeth? Incredible fighter, best second row in the world. But I regret that he only shows his best face with the Springboks.
"In Toulon, he is still a little injured, concussed and in the end, never plays.
"Obviously, he was not made for France and he will turn his back on the problems the club went through to return to South Africa.
"It's disappointing. I love Eben, I repeat. But you can't say when you arrive in Toulon: 'I want to be champion of France' and leave some time later without having marked the club in one way or another.
"His first season was not bad but it is not enough. When you recruit a world-class player, it's for him to make a difference."
Etzebeth made his first club appearance of the season last week against Bordeaux but reports in France say he has now torn his calf muscle and is facing more time out.
Russell feels yellow in Wales match was harsh
Scotland fly-half Finn Russell feels aggrieved at the yellow card he received during Wales' narrow victory over Scotland last weekend.
He was sent to the sin bin a little over 10 minutes from the end and Dan Biggar slotted a drop goal to put Wales ahead shortly after.
The visitors still had chances in the final stages but it felt like a huge moment in the match when, perhaps, momentum swung Wales' way.
But in an interview with The Times, Russell said he feels a little hard done by.
“I purely went for the interception; it wasn’t like I slapped it down,” Russell told The Times.
"“They [Wales] didn’t have anything on the outside, we weren’t under pressure. Yes they were on our line, but it wasn’t like ‘they’ve got a three on one on the outside, I need to slap this down’.
“They’re flat on our line so that’s always a place where the defence is going to get flatter than normal. And you can pick off a nine’s pass there sometimes: you’ve seen [Wales scrum half] Gareth Davies do that against us a couple of times in different games.
"He did it in a different area of the field, but these are places where you can get intercepts.
“With the conditions, the ball wasn’t coming out as quick as it normally does. I noticed I was on the inside of that forward [Dillon Lewis] so I just thought I would get up and get the intercept before it went to him.
"Had I not collided with him at the same time, I’d have probably regathered the ball."
Farrell not keen on South Africa
Earlier this week, the Six Nations poured cold water on reports South Africa were preparing to join the competition.
But it has done little to dampen reports that it could happen further down the line.
Asked about it this week, Ireland boss Andy Farrell was not keen.
“I don’t know how that would work,” he told RTE Sport.
“Eight weeks in a competition is pretty long enough and the reason it’s eight weeks with the fallow weeks is because of the intensity of those games.
“If you bring in somebody like South Africa, I don’t really see the intensity changing, do you?
“So I don’t know about that but anyway we’ll leave that to the powers that be to iron all that out.”
