England Saxons comes to IC for pre-Italy training

The England Saxons rugby team, otherwise known as the England ‘A’ team came to Harlington on Tuesday for a training session before Saturday’s 2008 Six Nations game against Italy ‘A’ in Ragusa, Sicily. As a treat, 8 members of the Imperial College Rugby Club were invited along to take part in the training session.

 

Initially the ‘lucky’ 8 thought they would effectively be used as human tackle bags in an effort to improve the Saxons defensive play, and this proved to be the case. The Imperial players were told to attack the England team, attempt to disrupt the ball and generally be a nuisance where possible. Eager to impress, the 8 players did exactly that and in the process got valuable first hand experience of what top level rugby is actually like.

The training session wasn’t without it’s share of fun and games, the Saxons’ forwards managed to persuade IC flanker James Petit to hide the scrum-halfs hat, before he was politely asked to return it by said scum-half. IC centre Alex Fergusson, however, gave the best quote of the day, claiming that two years ago he could have out sprinted any of the players that were at the training session; a view that the Saxons team undoubtedly didn’t share.

 

1st XV captain Andrew Jasudasen commented that: “After hearing of our phenomenal season so far, the Saxons coach Steve Bates thought that this was an opportune moment to inject fresh blood into the England squad! But on a serious note, it was a win–win situation where our boys got to experience something new and a standard of play to which we should be aiming for.”

On behalf of the Imperial College Rugby Club, this reporter would like to thank the England Saxons for this opportunity. 

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