This will be music to the ears of those expecting disharmony in the England camp following their disastrous World Cup campaign.
After the defeat to Australia that jettisoned the hosts from their own tournament ears were always going to be peeled for the outbreak of civil war.
While this latest row may not quite be quite as bombastic as 2011’s orgy of dwarf-throwing, ferry-jumping and hotel staff-abusing, it will still get inside your head.
According to the Daily Telegraph the players have chosen their battle with the RFU and the issue is headphones.
Yes, headphones. Like these.
https://twitter.com/beatsbydreUK/status/644978351602577408?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Or not like these, we should say, which was the problem.
Captain Chris Robshaw took part in a high profile marketing campaign for Beats by Dr Dre but the RFU insisted that players, on game day, wore headphones supplied by their official partner.
A source claimed this went down like a Vanilla Ice/Chuckles Brothers Megamix.
“It may seem like a small thing but some of the guys owned ‘Beats by Dr Dre’ headphones but they were told they could not wear them when they got off the bus and walked to the changing rooms as part of their pre-match routine,’ said the mole.
“The RFU were that sensitive to Samsung at that micro level but it was an issue with some of the players. A lot of them had their own headphones but couldn’t use them.”
There were larger issues, such as players being required to undertake commercial activities on behalf of the RFU in the run-up to the World Cup, while being prevented from writing lucrative newspaper columns and availing of other opportunities ahed of the biggest tournament of their careers.
No such problems in the Ireland squad, whose patriotic green headphones this year were provided by Simon Zebo and, judging by Jamie Heaslip’s Instagram, are being enthusiastically worn.
https://instagram.com/p/8EEBISIGYd/?taken-by=simonzebo15
https://instagram.com/p/8VrxfYD_8l/?taken-by=jamieheaslip
Not that the enthusiastic adoption of the trendy headphones should be taken as a great omen. Brazil superstar Neymar was the face of the brand heading into the 2014 World Cup, and we know how that ended for him.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_i3Lcjli84
