England’s wing commander Daly primed to take flight against Pumas
It’s funny how things have come full circle for Elliot Daly.The first time he played a Test against Argentina he lasted barely five minutes before being shown a red card for a misjudged tackle on a still airborne opponent.And now, nine years on, to whom have England turned to help discomfort the Pumas aerially? None other than wing commander Daly.Much has changed, however, since that distant sending off at Twickenham in November 2016 on what was only his third start for England.Daly is now a vastly experienced international with 73 caps and the game also looks significantly different courtesy of the crackdown on “escorts” protecting the catcher, which has put an even greater emphasis on high-ball expertise.
As a player who flits regularly between wing, full-back and centre, few have a better first-hand grasp of the implications of the revised law permitting chasers “free access” than the 33-year-old Saracen.“It’s changed the game,” says Daly, who will wear a protective foam guard in his first competitive match since fracturing his left arm against Queensland Reds on the British & Irish Lions tour.“When you were able to escort there was a 75% chance of getting the ball as a catcher, but now it’s probably 50-50.It does allow for more unstructured turnovers from which to attack, so I can see from that point of view how it’s more exciting to watch.But we know as players what we’re giving the other team if we don’t quite get it right.
We know how important it is … hopefully we can come out on top.”With rain forecast this weekend, England’s George Ford will certainly be looking to the air against the Pumas and the tactic has borne plenty of fruit already this autumn.“We were pretty good under the old laws, but now you know you’re not going to get blocked you can go for the ball and try to either tap it back or catch it,” says Daly.“We’ve seen that with Tom Roebuck in recent weeks: he’s tapped a couple back and we’ve scored tries so we understand how it can be a massive weapon for us.”Players are now also mostly better versed in the art of only competing for balls they have a realistic chance of reaching, rather than taking out defenders illegally and risking seeing red.
The margins can be slim, though, and Daly says all players are acutely aware of the need to stay legal.“You know where the line is.It’s about being as squeaky clean as possible now, especially clear-outs and tackles and all that kind of stuff.That’s the way we train, too.We train to make sure … we keep 15 men on the field.
”Daly, who ended up watching the first Lions Test in a local pub having been in contention to make the matchday squad before his injury, also speaks positively on the subject of England’s conditioning, now masterminded by the longtime Saracens expert Phil Morrow and Dan Tobin.Sign up to The BreakdownThe latest rugby union news and analysis, plus all the week's action reviewedafter newsletter promotionSteve Borthwick is increasingly delighted with the whole squad’s improved fitness – “The team is in considerably better condition than where it was” – and Daly says senior players like himself are benefiting from the sophisticated modern care they receive.“There’s a lot spoken about age but the amount we get tracked on GPS data: you know when you’re behind.I feel brilliant at the moment and I would love to be here come the next World Cup and beyond that.”South Africa’s Lood de Jager, meanwhile, has lost his appeal against the red card he received against France this month.
The Springbok lock was sent off in the 38th minute in Paris for a dangerous tackle on Thomas Ramos and banned for the remainder of the Autumn Nations Series.
Why don’t Conservatives get credit for culture funding? | Letter
Helen Marriage, a hugely respected cultural leader, writes that “there is no political party that will commit to the kind of investment needed to keep a living art and culture ecology alive” (Durham’s Lumiere festival was a beacon of hope and togetherness – we cannot let the lights go out on the rest of the arts, 11 November). But she also places the responsibility on all of us. She wants the culture sector to make a better case. But can it?As commissioner for culture in the last government, I remain surprised that large funding decisions directed at culture have been forgotten, devalued and ignored, perhaps because the sources were then from a Conservative government.During Covid, culture was the only economic sector to receive its own rapid, specially designed, comprehensive rescue package
Jon Stewart on Trump’s Epstein files flip-flop: ‘This dude is flailing’
Late-night hosts tore into the next chapter of Donald Trump’s never-ending Jeffrey Epstein scandal.Jon Stewart ripped into Trump on Monday evening after the president abruptly changed tack and called on House Republicans to authorize the justice department’s release of files related to Epstein, a convicted sex offender – files which Trump himself could order to be released.“If he had nothing to hide, he could have declassified and released these files himself at any time,” the Daily Show host explained. “How do I know this? A legal expert named Donald Jurisprudence Trump said so.”Stewart then played footage of Trump from 2022 in which he insisted that the president can declassify anything, at any time, just by saying so or “even by thinking about it”
North by Northwest: Hitchcock’s funniest, most ambitious film
Imagine: you’re a handsome and relatively successful ad man in idyllic 50s New York. You’re having a delicious mid-afternoon snack in the lobby of the Plaza hotel, which presumably cost all of $2.50, when suddenly you are abducted in broad daylight at gunpoint by two polite and well-dressed men. You don’t put up a fight. You merely walk with them to their car, trying to object in the only way you know how: asking nicely for them to stop
David Nicholls to adapt The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13¾ for BBC
A writing team led by the One Day author, David Nicholls, and that includes Caitlin Moran is bringing Sue Townsend’s The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13¾ to the small screen in a 10-part BBC One adaptation of the classic tale of teenage life in British suburbia.Nicholls, who described the book as “a classic piece of comic writing and an incredible piece of ventriloquism on Sue Townsend’s part”, will adapt the book that produced one of the best-known literary creations of the 1980s.Known for Mole’s comically dramatic assessments of his life in a Midlands cul-de-sac – “I feel like a character in a Russian novel half the time” – the book sold 20m copies worldwide and was translated into 30 languages.The BBC said: “With only a multi-coloured ballpoint pen as his guide, Adrian worries about his spots, his parents’ divorce, the torment of first love and the fact he’s never seen a female nipple.”None of the cast has been revealed, and producers say “a nationwide … search is currently underway to find Adrian”
‘People still blame me for their perforated eardrums’: how we made the Tango ads
‘Gil Scott-Heron did the closing voiceover. He was giggling away, saying, “You English guys are crazy!”’My creative partner Al Young and I had been on the dole for 18 months when we landed our dream jobs at Howell Henry ad agency. We had to prove ourselves fast. Tango’s brief was basically to get talked about. They told us: “We want Coca-Cola to be afraid of this little British brand
Memoirs, myths and Midnight’s Children: Salman Rushdie’s 10 best books – ranked!
As the author publishes a new story collection, we rate the work that made his name – from his dazzling Booker winner to an account of the 2022 attack that nearly killed him “It makes me want to hide behind the furniture,” Rushdie now says of his debut. It’s a science fiction story, more or less, but also indicative of the sort of writer Rushdie would become: garrulous, playful, energetic. The tale of an immortal Indian who travels to a mysterious island, it’s messy but charming, and the sense of writing as performance is already here. (Rushdie’s first choice of career was acting, and he honed his skill in snappy lines when working in an advertising agency.) Not a great book, but one that shows a great writer finding his voice, and a fascinating beginning to a stellar career
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