The thought of Maro Itoje, Dan Cole, Mako Vunipola and the rest of England’s heavy artillery huddled like overgrown schoolboys around a small Subbuteo table at Pennyhill Park is an incongruous one. But don’t be surprised if it becomes a reality before next year’s Rugby World Cup in Japan. Eddie Jones was apparently rather taken with the Subbuteo set-up in ‘The Cabin’ at GB Hockey’s training base in Bisham Abbey while on a visit there last summer.
The integrated pitch, which is laid out on the floor and surrounded by tiered seating - from which athletes can descend to move the little figurines about - is one of a number of innovative techniques favoured by Danny Kerry, the coach of the gold medal-winning GB women’s hockey team at Rio 2016.
A former university lecturer in sociology, Kerry appears to have made quite the impression on Jones since being invited to speak at Twickenham in the...