The wheels are off the chariot.
After suffering a fifth consecutive test defeat, a whole host of England rugby players threw their toys out of the pram on Saturday afternoon. Eddie Jones’ side suffered an eleven point, 23-12 loss to South Africa in Bloemfontein and the Saxons are now 126 days without a win in international rugby.
This test series with South Africa is now consigned to the dustbin, and a season that began with such optimism for England can’t end quick enough for them. They will now head to Capetown this Saturday with nothing more than a dead rubber on the horizon.
England raced out of the blocks in South Africa, and were up by 12 points after 13 minutes of the action. They wouldn’t register a score in the hour plus of rugby that followed.
But the controversy would only truly begin after the final whistle of the game. While frustration is a given after their recent run of results, it is the England players’ duty as professionals to act in a manner becoming of their status as such, and not to take their anger out on others.
That, it appears, was exactly what happened as soon as this game ended. Never far from the headlines, both Mike Brown and Joe Marler reportedly got involved in verbals with Springbok fans in the stands.
Bit of fall-out from the defeat at Free State Stadium…Joe Marler swore at Bok fans with Mike Brown becoming involved in the verbals, Ben Youngs walked away from a TV interview and Billy Vunipola may have aggravated the fractured arm that forced him out earlier this season
— Duncan Bech (@DuncanBech) June 16, 2018
The usually unassuming Ben Youngs walked away from a Sky Sports interview rudely and without even signing off.
He has since apologised, but England scrum-half Ben Youngs was visibly unhappy with his sides series loss to South Africa.
Where do England go from here? pic.twitter.com/QLFgU22UWm
— Sky Sports Rugby Union (@SkySportsRugby) June 16, 2018
He later apologised for his actions but when a sound character of his ilk is acting up, you just know there’s something toxic going on in that squad behind the scenes.
Just wanted to say sorry I walked off during my interview with Sky Sports. Obviously was very emotional and disappointed with result. Good to chat to Gail second time round just now. We go again in Cape Town. Thank you everyone 🌹
— Ben Youngs (@benyoungs09) June 16, 2018
This England squad is fairly well renowned for its arrogance. Feeding down from their boorish and belligerent manager Eddie Jones, a number of England players appear to have taken a lead from this. They appear to have some sort of ‘us against the world’ siege mentality in place, with Mike Brown and Joe Marler typifying this rudeness.
This is hardly healthy for a team’s spirit and England’s run of form shows that these tactics don’t appear to be working for them.
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