Zach Mercer has lifted the lid on his relationship with England head coach Eddie Jones, who told the rugby star he was "fat and lazy" before they'd even met.
Mercer, 24, made his senior debut for Bath in September 2016, a little less than 12 months into Jones' time as England boss. Still a teenager with dreams of making it into the national-team set-up at the time, however, his first brush with the Australian left an impression for all the wrong reasons.
“I remember the first phone call I had with him. He actually rang me and goes ‘Mate, Eddie here,’ and I’m like ‘Oh, hi.'" recalled Mercer during his appearance on the RugbyPass Offload podcast. "I wasn’t playing for Bath that long. And he was like: ‘Mate. Do you want to play for England?’ and I’m like ‘yeah.’ And Eddie goes: ‘Well you effing don’t look like you want to play for England. You’re fat, you’re lazy.’ I was like 'Oh, my god' and go ‘Yeah,’ and the phone call’s done. That’s it. It’s over.”
