ENGLAND LATEST NEWS ITEMS

England
By Ouseburn
June 20 2003

England 'Newsround' story board, Simon Shaw coming home, Clive calls on RFU, Alan Young, Eddie Jones says "best prepared England side ever".

LATEST NEWS

SIMON SHAW

Simon Shaw is to return home from Australia to seek specialist consultation on the neck injury he suffered in last week's victory over the New Zealand Maori. His recovery has not been as fast as hoped. Shaw has been ruled out of contention for the Australia game this weekend and will fly home to seek specialist advice as to what the recovery time is likely to be. No replacements will be flown out.

CLIVE CALL ON THE RFU

England coach Clive Woodward has requested RFU to act in the stamping row with New Zealand.

An independent citing commission absolved New Zealand lock Ali Williams of blame for stamping on the head of Josh Lewsey in Saturday's Test match in Wellington. Lewsey was forced from the pitch to have a gash in the back of his head stitched up after he was repeatedly caught by Williams' boot while lodged at the bottom of a ruck.

Williams the Auckland lock was cited but then cleared of intentional stamping. The England boss questioned whether the same decision would have been reached had the offender been one of his players.

"I have got the RFU involved," he said. "There is nothing more I can do. "We would be a lot happier if we had a clear explanation from the QC why he (Williams) gets absolutely nothing. "If it had been an English player, we'd still be in Wellington now and probably all be locked up," Woodward said.

"He has got off scot-free which is just wrong in my opinion. There is a feeling amongst the players that it is one rule for everyone else and one rule for the English. "We have got Danny Grewcock sitting at home who threw a few punches at Lawrence Dallaglio in a club game, which isn't going to hurt anybody. "I would like to hear why. What made it not a punishable offence?"

ALAN YOUNG

The RFU was immensely saddened to hear of the sudden death on Sunday (June 15th) of the Rugby Football Union’s Chairman of Finance and Funding, Alan Young

Eddie Jones Says………

Australia coach Eddie Jones dismissed England's losing history Down Under as irrelevant. "What we are seeing out here is the best-prepared England side ever," he said. "It is the result of five and a half years of consistent work where they have built some terrific principles into their preparations and built a game based on a variety of tactics has everything.”

In 10 attempts, the last being the centenary Test of 1999, England have never succeeded in beating Australia on their own soil.

Jones said, "It is our biggest challenge of the year and we are playing the best team in the world at the moment - you don't get much bigger than that do you?"