Listen to article
Narrated by James Marriott
So there’s a big rugby match today then. And not just Blackheath against Bishop’s Stortford. England start the World Cup as fifth favourites at 16-1, a reflection on a favourable draw rather than anything approaching form, but things can change quickly. A month ago Alex Mitchell and Jonny May weren’t in the World Cup squad, today they start against Argentina, and the team look stronger for it.
The vagaries of selection are laid out in The Boys of Winter, Owen Slot and Lawrence Dallaglio’s new autopsy of the World Cup winners of 2003, where we learn that Sir Clive Woodward was so worried by injuries to Josh Lewsey and Iain Balshaw after the group stage that he asked Austin Healey to do a 21,000-mile
© Times Media Limited 2023.