ALL BLACKS TRAIN AT THE LENSBURY IN TEDDINGTON
Tonight (thursday) the players and the coaching team took a stroll down the Teddington High Street with a group of the coaches having dinner at The King’s Head pub.
The sell-out match has taken on an extra edge after Quins and England prop Joe Marler appeared to taunt the opposition by saying the New Zealand’s ritual ‘haka’ should be ‘binned’ and that it was ‘ridiculous.’
The All Blacks coach Scott Robertson admitted the Marler’s post on X formerly twitter had been discussed amongst the Kiwi players. “I wonder if he wished he could have articulated himself a little better on that,” said Robertson diplomatically.
Marler has now left the England camp for unrelated ‘personal reasons.’
The All Blacks line up will include the three Barrett brothers, Scott, Beauden and Jordie.
England coach Steve Borthwick announced his starting line-up earlier in the week.
Starting XV: 1 Ellis Genge, 2 Jamie George (capt.), 3 Will Stuart; 4 Maro Itoje, 5 George Martin; 6 Chandler Cunningham-South, 7 Tom Curry, 8 Ben Earl; 9 Ben Spencer, 10 Marcus Smith; 11 Tommy Freeman, 12 Ollie Lawrence, 13 Henry Slade, 14 Immanuel Feyi-Waboso; 15 George Furbank.
Replacements: 16 Theo Dan, 17 Fin Baxter, 18 Dan Cole, 19 Nick Isiekwe, 20 Ben Curry, 21 Alex Dombrandt; 22 Harry Randall, 23 George Ford.