Tom May: Undercooked Saracens players are holding England back
The Telegraph Rugby Podcast
The Telegraph
4.5 • 679 Ratings
🗓️ 22 February 2021
⏱️ 53 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
We're heading into midway of the Six Nations and it's favourites France and unfancied Wales who remain the only unbeaten sides in the competition.
Joining Brian to preview the upcoming round of fixtures is former England centre Tom May. They begin by analysing England's underwhelming campaign so far and Tom expresses his concern over England's Saracens contingent which he says are suffering due to a lack of club rugby.
Ahead of the crunch game with Wales on Saturday, Brian says England must test young winger Louis Rees Zammit under the high ball whereas Tom says if they can manage to get the ball to their outside backs they will hand the Welsh their first defeat of the tournament.
France have set the standard so far but head into their match with Scotland with a depleted squad due to Covid. Can the Scots replicate their form of round one where they beat England in Twickenham?
As for Ireland they take on Italy in a game they should win comfortably. Head coach Andy Farrell has faced criticism after a poor start to the Six Nations but after watching them up close against France, Tom says there is more to come from them.
After fresh reports the Lions could in fact be staged in Australia we speak with Telegraph's chief rugby correspondent Gavin Mairs about what is going on with the tour.
And to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the world's first gay rugby club, we speak with Eamonn Ashton-Atkinson, the man behind the documentary 'Steelers' which celebrates the LGBT community within the game
Check it out here: https://www.steelersthemovie.com/, and for 30 days' free access to the Telegraph: telegraph.co.uk/contact
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | The Telegraph. |
| 0:02.0 | The Telegraph. |
| 0:03.0 | Podcasts. |
| 0:04.0 | Hello and welcome to Brown Mode's full contact with the Telegraph. |
| 0:23.6 | We're approaching the midway points of the 2021 Six Nations |
| 0:26.6 | and as many would have predicted, favourites France lead the standing with two wins from two. |
| 0:32.6 | What's to be less predictable is that Wales are the only other unbeaten side of the competition? |
| 0:57.0 | Can they make it three out of three when they play England in Cardiff this weekend? Or will Eddie Jones reignite his side and their title challenge with an away win? Scotland have been involved in two of the most entertaining games of the competition so far. And after throwing away a win to Wales last time out, they are heading to Paris, take on France, needing a win to keep their own title aspirations alive. |
| 1:02.0 | Tournament to get so far for Ireland, who've suffered consecutive defeats for the first ever |
| 1:07.0 | time in the Six Nations. They'll be hoping to get back on track, but we should do against Italy, |
| 1:11.7 | who are once again rooted to bottom the table. But we're still no closer to finding out |
| 1:16.9 | what's happening with the British and Irish Lions this statement. There are conflicting reports over |
| 1:21.5 | where the two months would go. Could it be held over here? Could it be held in Australia? We'll be |
| 1:25.8 | speaking to the Telegraph's chief rugby |
| 1:28.0 | score respondent, Gavin Mayers, who has written that the prospect of playing in Australia with |
| 1:32.9 | past crowds is still very much on the table. And we'll be speaking to Eamon Ashton Atkinson, the |
| 1:39.0 | director of the documentary based on the world's first game rugby team, the Kings Cross Steelers, who |
| 1:45.1 | celebrating their 25th anniversary this year and a good bunch of lads. |
| 1:48.7 | They are. |
| 1:49.7 | I was down there several years ago. |
| 1:51.4 | We'll be telling, it could be interesting. |
| 1:53.4 | And to talk through all this is the former England Centre who seems to be sitting |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Telegraph, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of The Telegraph and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.