Eddie Jones welcomes disruptions after fire near England hotel

England head coach Eddie Jones has embraced disruption in the lead up to the Six Nations as the team had to evacuate their hotel due to a fire.

The side have been in camp in Brighton and have already had to deal with player injuries, particularly captain Owen Farrell. But they were thrown another curveball as a manhole outside their hotel caught fire.

“The players were going to have a team communications session,” Jones said. “There was billows of smoke coming out of a manhole and all of a sudden it lit up. A huge fire like a bonfire came out of the manhole. We had to evacuate the hotel. At one stage we were going to go to the Cotswolds and buy some sleeping bags!”

How did England adapt?

An accommodation switch was needed after fire near England hotel and Jones added no players were at risk throughout the incident. The coach also welcomed the added blip in the team’s preparations, ten days out from their opener against Scotland.

He added: “It was a good disruption. Everyone had to adapt. We’ve had to change our programme today, the players had to sleep in uncomfortable beds last night. We enjoy those sort of things.

“Every time we deal with it a little bit better. We were in a similar situation in the 2019 World Cup with the typhoon where we had to move hotels.”

England will travel to BT Murrayfield on 5 February where they will hope to win back the Calcutta Cup. Scotland defeated Jones’ men in the 2021 tournament at Twickenham which added to England’s fifth place finish.

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