England Bid Goodbye To Genki Okoshi

The Suntory Sungoliath scrum-half was helping the English in their training sessions.

England Bid Goodbye To Genki Okoshi

For the past few weeks at the 2019 Rugby World Cup, England head-coach Eddie Jones has been using his past experiences and connections with Suntory Sungoliath to mix up his training sessions. He has been bringing in several of their players to give the English something different to train against and one man who has been there throughout is Genki Okoshi.

Well after their final training session the England players bid farewell to what appears to be a good luck charm in Genki, by gifting him a shirt signed by the team as you can see below.

Elliot Daly said;”It has been because we have had a few niggles and it’s been good to have a full XV to train against. (Scrumhalf) Genki (Okoshi) has been our boy. He has been with us probably the most amount of time. You can just see how excited they are to come and train. It is slightly different as well training against people that you don’t train against every day, it makes you concentrate a bit more in training, definitely.”

Billy Vunipola said; “It’s nice to have different people and different energy levels. We have had a few bumps and knocks but to have people like Genki in, not just to help with training but with the emotions of the group has been great. I think we have named-dropped them enough but he’s a good lad.”

This will be the second time England and South Africa have faced each other the Rugby World Cup Final. Previously South Africa emerged victorious in 2007 but Eddie Jones and defence coach John Mitchell are preparing for anything the Springboks throw at them.

“They play in a particular way, but you must always be prepared for anything that comes at us. They have a very clever (No.) 9, who is sharp,” Mitchell said.

“Polly (flyhalf Handre Pollard) is in really, really good form. They have four second-rowers who love winning the gain line. They have their own armory. It’s exciting. Last week (against New Zealand), we dealt with a lot of speed, a lot of footwork. This week they are certainly going to be a team that is more direct.”

No doubt the training sessions England have had with players like Genki have allowed them to but their best preparations into fruition.

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