The light speed of the modern news cycle has been evident this week, thanks to Great Value's Eddie Jones.
Within hours of the dredging up of a clip of Eddie Jones joking about losing to the "scummy Irish" and saying that Wales is this "little shit place with three million people", there was a frenzy of anger which forced Eddie Jones and the RFU to issue an apology.
"I apologise unreservedly for any offence caused – no excuses and I shouldn’t have said what I did", said Jones.
The topic naturally sprung up on today's edition of the Six Nations Takeaway with Carry Out Off Licence, for which erstwhile Irish prop Mile Ross was our guest. When asked by your correspondent whether these comments by Jones might spark a bit more motivation among some in the Irish camp, Ross gave an emphatic response.
That's a storm in a teacup. If anyone sees that video, it's clearly tongue in cheek. When you're in front of that kind of audience, you throw in a few jokes. It's been the Internet Outrage of the Week.
I wouldn't be one bit bothered by it. If you're relying on that to rile you up...good luck to you.
The build-up to the game at Twickenham has crackled with a couple of controversies and perhaps the more pertinent is the fact that Marius van der Westhuizen, an assistant referee for Saturday' game, spent some time in the England camp four days ahead of the game. Given that rugby referees are treated as kinds of auteurs, each bringing their own interpretation of the laws to a game, it has been claimed in some quarters that England are gaining an advantage by inviting van der Westhuizen to training, even if it's Angus Gardner rather than the South African who will be refereeing the game.
Ross, however, doesn't believe that England will get much of a benefit from having van der Westhuizen in training.
You hope that referees will be neutral no matter what. The optics aren't great, but I trust he will do his job to the best of his capabilities. Maybe he has picked up on a few bad tendencies in the England game, so that could work against them.
England defence coach Paul Gustard defended England on the matter.
So they [Ireland] will be questioning his integrity? You could see it the other way, couldn't you? What if it goes against us? He's an international referee. He is one of the best referees. You're asking someone to come in here and assist in training, give his viewpoint on things.
It's no different to if someone from Ireland rang up to give his viewpoint on things. They have the same access. I see no issue with it at all.
This had been long in the pipeline. It is all part of understanding different referees, how they referee things.
We have a relationship with the English referees that assist us. The opportunity to get other foreign referees in to give their viewpoint in how they see things is important for our growth as a squad.
You can watch the full show below.
