England lock Ben Kay claims captain Martin Johnson isn’t dirty… he’s just clumsy!
Kay, who plays alongside Johnson for the Leicester Tigers and England, said: “Martin takes a lot of stick, but it’s international rugby, you expect that. Forwards don’t normally criticise forwards, but Corne Krige has said what he said, even if the media made too much of it.
“The last two times I’ve played Jonno he’s stood on my face and given me stitches. He’s just clumsy really!
“Krige did things in that last game when we beat them 53-3 at Twickenham in November, they had a man sent off early on, things got out of hand.
“But he’s a good rugby player, you have to be to become captain of South African.
“The Twickenham game was not media hype, there were some dirty incidents but that game’s history now.”
Kay stuck to the one-game-at-a-time mantra and said: “We have to focus on the Georgia game first. And the boys are looking forward to it.
“You can only spend so much time on a rowing machine, preparing. Today we had a light job through session.
“Clive Woodward and the coaches spent the whole time telling us to slow down. That was our first rugby session today. We’ve had a few weights sessions.”
Kay was told Georgia were seen out having a couple of pints after swimming with sharks at the local aquarium on Saturday and was asked: “Are you guys enjoying yourselves at all?”
Kay said: “Clive Woodward trusts us, he always gives us down time. He let us warm down in the sea this morning.”
When told this constituted swimming with sharks after a gruesome attack at nearby Cottesloe Beach last year, Kay confessed: “There were a few shouts of shark but we didn’t see any! It would be a real shame if we lost a couple of players to sharks!
“But to be honest there’s more chance of being run over by a bus on the way to training.”