England attack coach Richard Wigglesworth was the bearer of bad news yesterday, as he confirmed that exhilarating wing Manny Feyi-Waboso will be missing the Six Nations finale against France. Wigglesworth explained how the Exeter man had suffered a head injury, and withdrew himself for the upcoming trip to Lyon.
Feyi-Waboso made his test debut in the opening round against Italy, before grabbing his first England try off the bench against Scotland. The Cardiff-born man was then unused against Wales, before making his first test match start in an 80-minute show-steal against Ireland. Wigglesworth highlighted how the 21-year-old is gutted to be missing the final match of the tournament, after a breakthrough campaign for Steve Borthwick’s side.
“There was no major incident, he had a knock and didn’t feel quite right, so he reported the symptoms and then was removed accordingly.”
“It is completely one of the reasons why the education has happened, so players know. The players are better looked after than ever, the rules support head-knocks. We take a lot of crap, don’t we, for really trying to do the best by the players, but I always felt as a player it was my responsibility as a player, after I knew everything to make sure I was safe and part of the education is allowing yourself to do that which he has done.”
“It had been building for Manny. You have to integrate these players carefully and I think Steve did that well in how he exposed him to Test rugby so he was ready to fly. He played really well, got his hands on the ball and did what we asked him to do and brought his talents. It’s very disappointing for him as I know how desperate he was to play again and how much he enjoyed his first start. we’ll select from where we are at the minute.”
After an emotionally exhaustive test week on the run up to Ireland, the England players could not be blamed if they take longer than usual to reach their peak during the preparations. Wigglesworth recognised the risk of his men running emotionally flat, but backs his side to take the week in their stride as they travel out to Lyon in the coming days.
“What you can’t do is go ‘right, we had this win that everyone has enjoyed’ and stay there. We have to build back up and to build back up we have to have a dip, which comes post-game with all the emotion involved that comes with Danny’s 100th (cap), for all the situations, but what we have got to do is decide we want to improve again and that is what good teams do. We want to be a good team and good teams go again and try and improve, that will be our focus.”
“It is chicken and egg. The carriers get a ball away for you and you have good options, it allows good players to play with a bit of tempo and get at the line and get the ball away really well. Mitch (Alex Mitchell) got the ball away really well and Danny (Care) did when he came on and George (Ford) attacking the line, making it hard for defenders, that is what we do.”
One player who certainly needs no motivating is Ben Earl, as the back-row is often shown let out an impassioned roar after his side secure a turnover or cross over for a try. After the win against Ireland, the Saracen expressed how the fact that England were written off in the contest on social media, was a motivating factor for his Player of the Match Performance.
Wigglesworth touched on the use of the media as Earl’s motivator, and explained how the England coaches tend to use social media is a more humorous way during the training week. The overall message from the England camp remains the same, they are focussed on themselves and not fazed by the external noise.
“To be clear there would be no media used around our team meetings to get ourselves going, that is a slippery slope to try and use, we want to get better. Will the players hear and see it, because you have got your phone right in front of you and use it in an emotional moment, someone like Ben Earl coming from it.”
“I would have used a lot of the lads’ social media, I would have scrolled back years and years to find some really embarrassing posts. Maybe a contradiction of one person one week and one another and go ‘you don’t believe this when it is really good and you don’t believe this when it is really bad’.
“Everyone has access to a phone, everyone has access to everyone’s opinion, everyone thinks they are right and that is now put out there so you can read it and believe it, read it and ignore it but there will be somewhere in the middle where ‘what do I think about this, how do I need to react’ that is the point I try to get over on social media.”
Continuing on with Earl, Wigglesworth recalled his earliest encounters with the back-row, when the pair shared a changing room at the Saracens training camp. Wigglesworth discussed how Earl was always a confident character, and took some moulding in the proverbial ‘school of hard knocks’, as he first established himself at the North London club.
“I actually sat next to him in the changing rooms at Saracens from when he was like an 18, 19-year-old coming into the squad. The difference in what he’s like now to what he’s like then, he got essentially booted up the a**** every day I reckon, at training. Because he had some confidence. At 19 it was not always backed up with… (who was doing the booting?) there was probably 12 of us that were on him.
“But what he keeps doing is he keeps getting into battles. He keeps wanting the ball, he keeps putting himself in great positions. And I don’t think he probably gets much credit for his toughness. Because whatever’s just happened, he’ll do the next thing to the absolute best of his ability. There’s no going into his shell, he wants the ball, he wants to make the next tackle, he wants to try and make the next turnover.
“But it’s the consistency of what he’s done. Through his training, through wanting to get better. It feels like for everyone else, now he’s arrived. For Ben, this is years of hard that are allowing him to flourish at Test level. And he’s got more in him. He knows that. He’s put in the work to become better.”
“He didn’t like being wrong. As 18-year-olds who are very confident and very good at what they do, multi-talented, single-figure handicap golfer, excellent cricketer, smart. All these things in the melting pot, you’ve got out of school thinking: ‘Yeah, I am the absolute man.” The problem was he probably had 12 months of stick, and he turned up the next pre-season, I remember it distinctly, he turned up the next pre-season and it was like: ‘Oh no. This guy’s the best player in training.’ It was like, flipping heck. This guy’s a player. So that process didn’t take him long to put his talents out on the field.”
Earl has always had exuberant confidence, as after a sporadic run with the England set up during the Eddie Jones era, the 26-year-old has since emerged as a leading figure in Steve Borthwick’s England pack. Earl will likly be picked the pack down the back of the England scrum from the start, for the final Six Nations match, yet Wigglesworth and co will have some decisions to make regarding the back-row replacement.
Chandler Cunningham-South picked up an injury in the closing stages against Ireland, so the Harlequin will also likely miss the final match of the Championship. Alex Dombrandt could well return to the replacements bench, or we could well see the likes of Ethan Roots come back after being dropped from the Irish conquering match day 23.
Looking at this weekend’s opponents, Wigglesworth recognised the quality that France have at their disposal but does not see this as a ‘revenge’ fixture for last season. England were handed a 53-10 defeat by France in the 2023 Six Nations, in a loss that stands as the heaviest ever at Twickenham. Wigglesworth was not apart of the coaching staff for that landslide defeat, so has not personal connection with the hammering from last year’s Championship.
“I was not involved and obviously the squad has changed a lot. It has not been spoken about this week at all. From watching on, the French were incredible that day but things change week to week, never mind year to year so it’s not something we have referenced. Steve took the lessons from it as he does and moves on. It is not something we have referenced.”
“(France against Wales) Very good. They were back to challenging both sides of the ball. They had a bit more shape in attack where quality players can go at you. You have this magic out wide. I thought Ramos, considering he was playing 10, was very impressive and Le Garrec at 9 made a difference to the tempo they played at. To score 40 points in another country is some performance.”