England head to the Royal Marines.

[Prestwick]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/rugby_unio...ish/6238540.stm

Rather than go to Portugal for training as planned, Brian Ashton has sprung a surprise on his squad by sending them for four days training with the Royal Marine Commando's specialist "surredner course"

Over the four days, England's finest in Rugby will learn certain life saving skills such as:

• How to drop your weapon as quickly as possible.
• How to say "I surrender" in Persian, Arabic, Pastun and other languages from the Gulf and the Near East.
• How to unfurl a white flag within two seconds.
• How to blame everything on the female driver of the boat.
• Congenial and affable television presentation skills for those all so important video clips of you pointing out that you oh so were in Iranian waters.
• Handy hints and tips on how to write your stirring ready-for-serialisation-in-the-daily-mail diary and how to sell it on the market post-kidnap for lots of money!

Yes, they may teach you how to blow stuff up in the US Army, how to kill everyone in the Parachute Regiment, how to be amazing in the SAS and how to drive around in circles in the Aussie SAS, but in the Royal Marine Commando, they teach you how to MAKE MONEY!

I can see England will be fully prepared for the Rugby World Cup now....<strike>we're doomed.</strike>

 

[Bullitt]

Hold 2003 Springboks repeat, Batman!

 

[Cymro]

I cannot believe this they are going to need more than the army should have sent them to the navy!

Nah just kidding, its a good ploy a bit of fitness and toughness never hurt anyone, worked for the OZ before the last Ashes series why not here?

 

[Prestwick]

They did send them to the Navy. The Royal Marine Commando are part of the Navy.

 

[back row youth]

well it worked for woodward in between 1999 and 2003 so well have to see if it does anything this time

 

[Prestwick]

It is a good way to separate men from boys and leaders from negative people.

He is looking to see which guys take initiative and work so hard that the rest of the team go with them. You know, the Brian O'Driscoll effect. These four days will go a long way to influence Aston's team selection.

 

[Bullitt]

All well and good to get the leaders, but Cheifs still need their Indians... Can you imagine that horrible Italian c*** listening to any captains gameplan these days instead of only doing what he wants?

 

[AShipley]

To me, it seems more like posturing than actually achieving anything.