RWC - Engand's Neil Back talks to Sportsbeat

By Sportsbeat
August 21 2015

ENGLAND World Cup winner Neil Back is convinced the uncertainty surrounding boss Stuart Lancaster’s starting XV will come back to haunt him this autumn.

 

The Red Rose get their Rugby World Cup campaign underway at Twickenham next month against Fiji, after their final warm-up clashes in France and then at home to Ireland.

But first Stuart Lancaster must cut his squad to a final 31 players, and despite England’s 19-14 weekend victory over France, Back believes the chopping-and-changing seen throughout the Six Nations has to stop.

The 46-year-old, who formed England’s famous back-row unit for 2003’s triumph alongside Richard Hill and Lawrence Dallaglio, insists that some consistency is needed in the coming month if England are to lift the Webb Ellis Cup on October 31.

“The only real concern for me ahead of the Rugby World Cup is that we haven’t got a settled team,” said Back, who was helping to promote SSE's joint sponsorship of ITV’s coverage of Rugby World Cup 2015.

“If you’d asked a panel of sports journalists or rugby fans our starting XV when we won it 12 years ago, you probably would have only had 16 or 17 names mentioned.   “But now in this current team you’re talking about 25 or 26 players, and as a result we haven’t got consistency of relationships with one another.

Back was speaking at the ‘SSE Sounds Of Victory’ pop-up shop in London, where he helped to unveil the world’s first ever sports bottle that harnesses the hair-raising power of crowd noise.

The bottles use unique new technology to lock in crowd noise from some of the most famous moments in rugby history, ready to be released to stir the emotions of fans who pop the lid.

“Every rugby fan will have experienced a moment they wish they could relive,” Back added. “When the atmosphere is so incredible you wish you could bottle it there and then.    “SSE has made that possible, giving us the chance to reminisce alongside fans in London.   “People have also been recording their own sounds of victory, which I hope we hear more of in stands around the country over the next few weeks.”

 

SSE is proud joint sponsor of ITV’s coverage of Rugby World Cup 2015.

Visit ssereward.com #soundsofvictory