Game in England is heading for a storm

THE return of England A- the national second team known as the Saxons when they last played seven years ago - is good news for the English game.

- NICK CAIN

It has two overriding benefits. It will help to redress the shortage of matches with tier two nations, who need the competitive step up provided by tier one nations to boost their development. At the same time it will also benefit English rugby by addressing the lack of playing experience at international level for promising players and coaches, selected from the Premiership, and hopefully the Championship.

The first match since the Saxons 2016 tour of South Africa - in which they won the series 2-0 against South Africa A - will be against Portugal during the 2024 Six Nations, when they face Os Lobos at Welford Road on February 25, the day after England meet Scotland at Murrayfield.

Playing against a Portugal team that scored a stylish first World Cup win over quarter-finalists Fiji should provide promising players like Newcastle winger Adam Radwan and Northampton flanker Tom Pearson a chance to press their cases for more full caps. It should also be a key platform for addressing the staggering neglect since 2019, and before, of developing a new generation of England props who are first and foremost Test-standard scrummagers.

Unfortunately, RFU chief executive Bill Sweeney allowed Eddie Jones to not only pocket a huge salary, but also spend so much on his England squad expansion that they shelved the national second team, and the benefits it brought - until now.

It smacks of a PR exercise by an RFU hierarchy which has lost public support through pedantic virtue-signalling of which the decision to axe 'Saxons' as a non-inclusive name and revert to 'A', is just one example.

It highlights a much bigger failing within this RFU administration of a complete disconnect with large parts of the English rugby public. This has been evident in over 20,000 empty seats at Twickenham for the World Cup warm-up against Fiji, and also a fall in numbers at matches in the ring-fenced Premiership so far this season.