England and Wales prepared for their respective autumn internationals against Argentina and Australia by testing each other’s resolve in an unprecedented joint training session at Clifton College on Monday.
The collaboration was organised by head coaches Eddie Jones and Warren Gatland with a focus on scrums and line-outs. The aim was to get each pack in a competitive frame of mind ahead of this weekend’s fixtures.
According to England scrum coach Neal Hatley, the session was considered valuable.
Photos taken from a distance show the England and Wales players preparing for training
The joint session was the first time England and Wales players have competed in training
‘It was good, very worthwhile. It was good to get live competition early in the week and we gained a lot from it,’ Hatley said.
‘We want to make training as competitive as possible so the unfamiliarity of it made this session different. Obviously it was against players we don’t come up against week in week out.
‘There was a little bit of an edge, but there was nothing serious. Both sides took a lot from it.
‘Without sounding too calculating, it was a training aid to help us prepare for Argentina so there was good edge to it.’
Asked if either nation came out on top, Hatley replied: ‘We’ll look at the video and take it from there!
‘We got what we wanted to out of it, putting into practise things that we’d been looking at during our training camp in Portugal last week.
‘It sets us up nicely to play Argentina, who are a good set-piece team, so in that respect it was handy.’
Wales defence coach Shaun Edwards said of the Welsh team: ‘They went over there to test first phase and apparently it went quite well. Hopefully they got a bit out of that. It shows the spirit of rugby that can put your hat on one side and do it for the greater good of northern hemisphere rugby.’
The session was set to include a dozen scrums and 15 line-outs at Clifton College
World leading referee Nigel Owens (not pictured) was drafted in to regulate the session
One of the world’s most respected referees, Nigel Owens, was drafted in to regulate the dozen scrums and 16 line-outs that took place.
And there was a strong suggestion from the England camp that Owens’ expertise was required, with Jones promising the two teams would ‘rip into each other’ and ‘get stuck in’ on Sunday.
England captain Dylan Hartley admitted there would be an edge while Exeter prop Harry Williams dubbed it the ‘Battle of Bristol’ before warning it could ‘all kick off’.
Speaking before the session, Hartley said: ‘Going up against Wales will challenge us in a different way, make us more resilient and self-reliant. I don’t think we can go down there and have a brawl, but there will an edge to the session.’
Wales take on Australia at the Principality Stadium on Saturday before welcoming Georgia the following week and a final mammoth fixture against the All Blacks on November 25.
England, meanwhile, play Argentina at Twickenham this weekend before ties against Australia and Samoa.
Clifton College was the sight of the first joint training session between England and Wales