Ep 1: Keeping Up with the Joneses

Will Greenwood (0:02)

Greenwood, still Will Greenwood. This is amazing.

Rupert Cox (0:27)

Hello, everybody, Rupert Cox with you. Welcome to the Will Greenwood podcast, our first episode of a brand new season ahead of the season 2019-2020. What a season it's going to be.

Small matter of a World Cup on the horizon, of course. Good show for you today. Before we talk about what's in it, Will, how are you? How was your summer?

Will Greenwood (0:48)

Yeah, good. It's normally we start talking about September 2nd, September 3rd, so I had to recalibrate a little bit excited about the four warm up games.

Things are clearly some sort of tectonic plates have shifted. Historically, it's been about scrapping for places to get into the squad, but it seems it's much more about a sort of tactical adjustment of the side, with Eddie really knowing his 31 almost before we go into the first game against Wales. But I've switched off. I've been off grid last week for six days in a family safari in Botswana and Zambia.

Rocco caught a tiger fish. We swam in Devil's Pool at the top of Vic Falls, which is one of the great things to do on the bucket list.

Rupert Cox (1:31)

Did you see the big five?

Will Greenwood (1:33)

We didn't see a lion, but we did track. We came around the corner. We were about to jump out of the truck for a sundowner on Wednesday.

And John Barclay, our guide, came running back around the corner, went leopard in hushed tones. And there on a bridge 100 yards away was a leopard, and we got some nice snaps. And then we tracked a leopard for two hours.

And it was just like being in the presence of greatness, the epitome of stealth. And it certainly will be to be there with the kids and watch it and get within four yards at one stage as it sat and stalked a red lechwe, which is one of the 73 types of antelope found in Africa. Do you know the giraffe and the wildebeest were actually technically antelopes?

Rupert Cox (2:23)

I didn't know that.

Will Greenwood (2:25)

There you go.

Rupert Cox (2:26)

And I've been to Botswana.

Will Greenwood (2:27)

Learn all sorts of...

Rupert Cox (2:27)

Do you know the collective term for giraffe?

Will Greenwood (2:31)

No, I did learn the one. I loved a dazzle of zebras.

Rupert Cox (2:33)

That's correct.

Will Greenwood (2:34)

The crash of hippos. I didn't ask and we did see. So there's two collective terms for giraffes.

Rupert Cox (2:41)

That's correct.

Will Greenwood (2:42)

Is it?

Rupert Cox (2:42)

That's if they're standing still.

Will Greenwood (2:44)

I am extraordinarily bright.

You knew that. I didn't.

Rupert Cox (2:48)

Okay, so if they're standing still, they're called the tower of giraffes. Yeah, if they're walking and they always walk in single file, they're called a journey of giraffes.

Will Greenwood (2:56)

Okay, a business of monkeys is a strong one.

Rupert Cox (2:58)

Yeah, that's good.

Will Greenwood (3:00)

Is it a business of monkeys? Yeah, I think it's a business.

Rupert Cox (3:03)

You know, my favorite, a rook of ravens, my favorite collective term.

Will Greenwood (3:08)

Give me the animal.

Rupert Cox (3:09)

A selfishness of sports commentators.

Will Greenwood (3:14)

Well, they do have a self, they have selfish herds, antelope, which are all male.

Rupert Cox (3:18)

Yes, true.

Will Greenwood (3:18)

They're all male and, oh, what's the McDonald's of Safari, the Impala, because on their...

Rupert Cox (3:26)

Impala's everywhere.

Will Greenwood (3:27)

Yeah, well, they have a little M on their bottom. Because they get eaten up, they are called the McDonald's of the bush.

Rupert Cox (3:36)

So what's coming up? We're going to speak to Eddie Jones.

Jimmy Gemmell drew the short straw and had to head to Treviso in Italy in the height of summer to go and speak to the England head coach. We've got that coming up for you.

Will Greenwood (3:46)

Enjoying the Treviso thing, by the way. I love the stories coming out about the humidity up to 85 and 90 and the temperatures. And Mike Brown saying he was losing three kilograms in a good training session. And it's that understanding that when you tell people that, they just don't quite get it. And I remember, I think it might have been Leonard, Jason Leonard in one game. And he starts at, I mean, Mike Brown starts at 90, 95 kilos. So three is just over 3%. I think Leonard at one stage once lost just under six kilos in a game.

Rupert Cox (4:18)

A little preview of the Jones interview before we get there. Apparently, he surprised the squad with a full-on training session against Italy.