‘Who gives a s***’ – Ex-England star urges more ‘trash talk’ after defending ‘arrogant’ Irish

Former England forward James Haskell has leapt to the defence of the Ireland greats who confidently predicted a victory last weekend.

The likes of Jamie Heaslip, Simon Zebo, Peter Stringer and Ronan O’Gara rubbished the Red Rose chances of emerging triumphant over the defending champions.

Ireland had gone into the game off the back of three dominant wins, including a very impressive 38-17 success over France in the opening Six Nations encounter.

Humble pie

Many could not foresee England being on the right side of the scoreline, but they were made to eat humble pie as Steve Borthwick’s men came away with a 23-22 victory.

The likes of Heaslip and co. were called ‘arrogant’ both before and after the game for their pre-match predictions, but Haskell had no issue with what was said.

In fact, the former flanker, who earned 77 caps, wants to see more of that in rugby union.

“We encourage sports people, and especially rugby players, to have personalities. I’ve got no problem with Ronan O’Gara, Jamie Heaslip or Peter Stringer saying any of that, it’s so good for the game,” he told The Good, The Bad & The Rugby podcast.

“The problem is, when people say things like that and put their head above the parapet, we’re now chastising them.

“I would say, ‘lads, who gives a s***.’ You put yourself out there, you had an opinion. It didn’t pay off on this particular occasion, but keep doing more of it.

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“Every time there’s a fight in MMA or boxing, they trash talk. If they get filled in they go, ‘I’m sorry, I got filled in!’ That’s it.

“Everyone was so adamant of going, ‘what are you thinking now Jamie Heaslip? What are you thinking now Peter Stringer?’ You’ve got to take it both ways. Put something out there, say it. I think we need more of that.”

Lack of confidence

Ireland’s confidence was in stark contrast to Haskell’s before the game, who was honest in his assessment of what he thought was going to happen at Twickenham.

“Honestly, if you’d asked me, I would have walked around saying, ‘we’re going to get f*****g pumped’,” he added.

“I think it’s great for the sport, I love it. A bit more trash talk and a bit more hype, put your balls on the line, and if they get snipped off, that’s what happens. F*** around, find out.”

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