‘SAS: Who Dares Wins’ star, Jason Fox, was invited to speak to England’s squad at their Brighton College training camp on Wednesday.
The TV personality, who has become a firm front-room favourite on our screens since the series started, was recruited by head coach Steve Borthwick.
Borthwick is clearly hopeful that Fox will inspire his troops ahead of their Six Nations run-in that includes difficult matches against France and Ireland.
Curry brothers backed in the SAS
Fox was a sergeant in the Special Boat Service having joined the Royal Marines aged 16 and became the latest in a list of guest speakers for the squad.
“Some of the other boys would be good in the SAS! Probably Tom and Ben Curry, they’d be alright,” England prop Mako Vunipola said on reflection.
However, Vunipola made no secret of his favourite speaker in the England camp as one of his Manchester United heroes, Roy Keane, made an impact.
“His career speaks for itself, he’s a serial winner. I’m a United supporter anyway, so when they said he was coming in I was buzzing for that,” he said.
“When he spoke to us he was a great character – very funny and a great story teller. But also you can see he has an intensity to him that makes you think ‘whatever he says, I’m following him’.
“Even now I’ll go back and say, ‘do you remember when Roy came in?’ And everyone just remembers it.
“You don’t really remember the stories, but you do remember just sitting there and being glued to it, listening to every word he says.”
Those final Six Nations games against France at Twickenham and Ireland in Dublin are daunting prospects as they’re ranked two and one in the world.
But Vunipola views the matches as an ideal test for his side as they look to continue making strides under Borthwick and finish the campaign strongly.
Good test for Borthwick’s England
“France and Ireland are the leading teams in world rugby at the minute. To have them back-to-back is a test of where we are,” the England prop said.
“The biggest thing for them is the consistency they bring. It doesn’t matter what game they play in, they always play to a high level. That’s something we have to aspire to.
“We’re not miles off but we still have a long way to. We have to have the confidence we can beat them. We can’t go into the game already accepting defeat.
“We know all we can do is go out there and put in a performance we’re proud of. If we do that we can walk off with our heads held high. Hopefully we can take the challenge to them.”
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