Steve Borthwick has turned up the heat on England’s World Cup hopefuls, putting them through their paces in extreme temperatures in Verona in an effort to prepare them for the “make-or-break” moments at the tournament later this year.
England are spending the week at a state-of-the-art training facility in northern Italy, with Borthwick changing Eddie Jones’s plans and opting against returning to Treviso. On Tuesday the thermometer hit 40C and, to the amazement of locals, Borthwick has arranged gruelling sessions for late afternoon during a heatwave which – because of an anticyclone ominously named Cerberus – could see Italy record the highest ever temperatures in Europe this week. After a morning of ball skills and strengths, players took to the field for a series of exhausting drills for a 50-minute session with Borthwick having to introduce additional water breaks because of the heat.
