England practice with soapy rugby balls in prep for Ireland Six Nations opener
JAMIE GEORGE was juggling with soapy balls in the sweltering heat of Portugal to get ready to clean-up in Ireland.
But the mad plan was all about getting ready to touch down in dreary Dublin for England's massive Six Nations opener against Joe Schmidt's side in a week's time.
Eddie Jones' Red Rose squad are leaving no stone unturned ahead of facing the Grand Slam holders with the back-three also being put under pressure with the slippery bars of soap for an aerial assault — like the one in our exclusive snap.
After lobbing around balls with no grip on all day, hooker George said: "Eddie likes to mix things up a bit.
"With the ball thing, we do that quite a lot. Eddie always tries to test us. l love it. Line-out throwing with it is very enjoyable. It is a soapy ball. It is all part of the madness.
"It is good because it really does test your skills. If you do it in that situation then you will be to do it when you get a dry ball with pimples on it.
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"Eddie has four balls in his hand and just launches you a wet one. Sometimes it is dipped in a bucket. It is tough but it is good.
"Sometimes you are worrying about the ball slipping out of your hands so much that you don’t actually end up giving it some."
As SunSport previously revealed, England forwards coach Steve Borthwick often gets the hookers to also put on not rubber gloves, but BOXING GLOVES as they attempt to chuck the ball to their target in the line-out.
Saracens and Lions star George added: "Steve has some very very alternative types of throwing sessions.
"I love it. I love the training around line-out throwing. I find that stuff fascinating and I am happy to try any of that stuff out.
"The boxing glove hasn’t been around recently, but I am sure it will be back soon."
But at least George didn't have attack coach Scott Wisemantel hitting him with a foam noodle during the drills, like the backs had to cope with.
Revved-up to take on Irish without the need of Wisemantel's prods, George added: "There was a huge sense of excitement going into autumn.
"It was the most excited I had been. We were actually being challenged and we were up against it. That’s when you get the most out of people. It was fight or flight."
And with Ireland based just 20 minutes down the road but heading home last night, England also made sure that they wouldn't fall victim to any possible spying storm.
Netting was put on sections of their Vilamoura training base at Browns Sports And Leisure Club where spooks could see in.
As Owen Farrell stepped up his recovery from hand surgery only Brad Shields (hip) and Joe Cokanasiga (knee) were absent from training, with Jonathan Jospeh managed after making his comeback from nine months out after ankle surgery.