England v Wales - Tom Curry happy to adapt for the Red Rose cause

With the Guinness Six Nations cut short by the coronavirus, just a few months after Typhoon Hagibis blasted out England’s World Cup contest with France, you begin to wonder what will come next.

One thing is for sure, though; England – with their final game in Rome postponed on public health grounds – will be throwing everything into this 80 minutes ahead knowing they may not be in action again until the autumn.

Given the professionalism of players in the modern era, they are not easily unsettled by events which might affect them.

Tom Curry, who will continue in his new-found role at No 8 with Mark Wilson at openside, said the coronavirus issue has altered nothing in their preparation.

He is more concerned at getting to grips with Josh Navidi, the No 8 who will be looking to shine on his recall after Taulupe Faletau was deemed not fit enough to start.

“No, our hygiene is always massive in camp,” said Curry, the 21-year-old Sale Shark who has been such a revelation for the Red Rose.

“Whether someone gets a cold or something can be pretty big for a performance so we’re always pretty big on it.

“We’ve obviously got hand gels around whether some lads use it or not is maybe a different question. But we’re always pretty strict on our hygiene, doc is on it, so nothing has changed really.”

And Curry maintains England are not thinking about last year’s Six Nations game against the Welsh either.

He had scored to help set up a 10-3 interval lead in Cardiff only for the visitors to nosedive spectacularly, losing 21-13 to the eventual Grand Slam winners.

“We addressed that in terms of that second half, and what happened in comparison to our first half, but that’s all been put aside,” said Curry. “We’ve learned from that and moved on.

“We’ve had so many games as a team since then and I think we’ve improved as a team since then, so we don’t need to find any motivation from a year ago. We’re fully focussed on Saturday and what we can bring.

“All that stuff has been dealt with and I think we’ve really put ourselves in a better spot since then.”

That is true given their exploits in reaching a World Cup final and, in this tournament, putting on such an impressive show against Ireland last time out to set up the chance of a third successive win.

Curry’s battle with Navidi will be intriguing; the relative newcomer in the No 8 role against a man who has plenty of experience but played only two games for his club Cardiff since tearing a hamstring in the World Cup last autumn.

But so will watching how Curry and Wilson dovetail given their unusual positions; with Sam Underhill out, most people expected Wilson to come in at No 8 – where he has operated best – with Curry reverting to his favoured role of openside.

However, Eddie Jones rarely does the ordinary and people have stopped second-guessing his selections; his bold choices certainly worked against Ireland.

Curry insisted: “We’ll just play our normal game. You can’t put a percentage on who is going to be doing what.

“We’ll have to find out, but as I said we’ll probably just play our game.

“And I think that’s when we’re both at our best and we can impact the team even more if we’re both just playing our natural game.”

Wales, of course, head to English rugby headquarters desperate to avoid a third successive defeat in one Six Nations campaign for the first time since 2007.

They have struggled since the departure of Warren Gatland and Shaun Edwards with losses to Ireland and France derailed hopes of a successful title defence.

They have suffered eight defeats from their last 10 visits to Twickenham.

England, meanwhile, bade farewell to Steve Borthwick, their forwards coach and then skills coach who will take over as Leicester Tigers head coach in the summer.

The former England captain has had a big impact on Curry who said: “From when I first came in Steve has been a brilliant influence.

“Talk about last summer and being able to adapt to the six role.

“Part of that was lineout jumping and it was massive for me to be able to go to most sessions with him.

“As the forwards coach he has high standards, and he’s definitely changed my behaviour in terms of training and everything, coming into this England camp he’s been a huge influence.”

Once today’s battle is over, though, will Curry look to continue in this new role of No 8?

“I love playing rugby; I’m going to play wherever I’m put,” he maintained.

“I’ve learned some brilliant skills, and I definitely want to carry on with that.

“You want to keep learning as a player, and keep getting better, from when you’re starting out at 17 all the way to – I don’t want to say what the maximum age is – but all the way right to the end.

“So yes as a player I want to keep getting better and I want to keep learning, whether that’s different positional traits, different positional skills.

“Going from six I’m still lineout jumping, just now I’m eight probably not as much, but I’m still practicing it, so there’s an example. I’ll carry on with the skills.”

And England will carry on regardless. Just hoping the tournament does, too.