England’s replacement scrum-half says his dash to
Japan cannot compete with
New Zealand World Cup winner Stephen Donald’s summons from a fishing trip
By his own admission it has been a crazy few days for the
England rugby player Ben Spencer. He seems almost sheepish when he says that his is not quite the Cinderella story famously told by the former New Zealand World Cup winner Stephen Donald – “I was just at home, feeding the kids” – but Spencer is nonetheless on the brink of his own fairytale ahead of Saturday’s final against South Africa.
When Spencer arrived in Japan on Monday the 27-year-old scrum-half was greeted by England’s head coach, Eddie Jones, who straight away reminded him of Donald’s story. The All Black was on holiday whitebait fishing in 2011 when he got the call to join the All Blacks, who were favourites to win the final on home soil, amid an injury crisis. He ended up on the bench in the final, just as Spencer will be, and when fly-half Aaron Cruden was struck down in the first half he came on to kick the decisive penalty that defeated
France to win a nail-biting World Cup final by a solitary point.