England players go bungee jumping ... to unwind
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England’s Chris Ashton, Nick Easter and Ben Foden recovered from England's bruising victory over Argentina with an extreme sports outing in Queenstown including bungee jumping and whitewater rafting.
Despite the possibility of injury in the 'adventure capital of the world', Ashton, Easter, Foden joined James Haskell, Simon Shaw and Dylan Hartley in their white knuckle activities, while others players relaxed with their partners.
Sunday's fixture with Georgia, as was the case with Saturday's opening 13-9 win against Argentina, will take place in Dunedin, nearly 300 miles (480 kilometres) from Queenstown. But England forwards coach John Wells said it was worth uprooting the squad.
"We are in Dunedin for a long time, relatively speaking, and I think it's just a case of giving the guys a break," Wells explained. "It's an opportunity to get some really good training in a different location but also for the guys to freshen up. We've been together since the beginning of June and the guys haven't had a lot of time to enjoy each other's company. This is an opportunity for them to do a few things and actually be together."
England players were out in a local bar on Sunday to watch South Africa, the side that beat them in the 2007 final, begin the defence of their title with a thrilling 17-16 win over Wales. This was all in line with England manager Martin Johnson's policy of treating his players like grown-ups and trusting them not to go overboard in their socialising, a stance he outlined before the squad left for New Zealand.
"When I started playing rugby at senior level you were dealing with blokes," Johnson said last month.
