Six Nations 2018: England's Richard Wigglesworth ready for Wales test
- Published
Six Nations 2018: England v Wales |
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Venue: Twickenham Date: Saturday, 10 February Kick-off: 16:45 GMT |
Coverage: Live radio commentary on BBC Radio 5 live, BBC Radio Wales & BBC Radio Cymru. Live text commentary, report and video highlights on the BBC website and app. |
England scrum-half Richard Wigglesworth believes he is still improving as a player as he prepares for a return to international rugby at the age of 34.
Wigglesworth last played for England at the 2015 Rugby World Cup, when the hosts went out in the pool stages.
But Ben Youngs' knee injury means the Saracens player returns for Saturday's Six Nations encounter with Wales.
"You are always learning and wanting to improve, and that doesn't stop at any age," Wigglesworth told BBC 5 live.
The former Sale pivot was a regular under previous head coach Stuart Lancaster, but has spent much of the past couple of years out of favour.
Wigglesworth is likely to be used as a replacement against the Welsh, but insists he will be ready to start if called upon.
And after being brought into camp by Eddie Jones on Monday, he has been working overtime with the help of a secret England rugby training app.
"We have an app I was straight on which has all the calls and what's happened in the past, so you can get up to speed a bit quicker than normal," he explained.
"I was on that Sunday night and Monday morning to try and get ahead of the game."
Wigglesworth has been one of the form scrum-halves in the Premiership in recent years, twice winning the European Champions Cup with Saracens, but says he refused to blame anyone for his exile.
Youngs and Danny Care have been the preferred choices for most of Jones' tenure.
"It's easy to get disillusioned and blame other people, but if you are ready to look at yourself first and work hard, then you can make stuff happen," he added.
"Ben and Danny have done a good job. They are the most capped scrum-half ever [Care], and the most starts as an England nine [Youngs], and you don't get that without a lot of quality.
"I had stopped worrying about anyone else and what they were doing, and started worrying about myself quite a while ago.
"I think that led to a sharp improvement in myself, and the stress levels that all come with it.
"Scrum-half is one of those positions where you don't stop improving. The game moves on and you have to move with it, because you are at the sharp end of what your team does."
- Published24 February 2018