CALLS from former England players to England coach Eddie Jones for the inclusion of Zimbabwe-born loose forward Don Armand have been deafening.
By Daily Mail
Armand has been the best back-rower in the Aviva Premiership for a year, but Jones has ignored him while England fumble at the breakdown, until now.
Last week Armand was finally rewarded with a deserved call-up and was last night set to be tasked with solving England’s back-row crisis against Ireland in a Six Nations match, with Jones eyeing the Exeter Chief as an option at No 8.
Helping England renew their World Cup quest will however not be the toughest challenge Armand has faced. The 18st 2lb Zimbabwe-born forward is used to starting again. He was 13 years old when Robert Mugabe’s forces came to steal his family farm.
Luckily, back in 2002, the Armands escaped their plot near Harare before the land invasions conducted by the tyrant turned violent.
“They did not hit our farm first, we knew it was going around — all they did was start sitting on the field that you drive past,” he recalled to Sportsmail.
“Then they beat up the workers and told us we could not carry on doing certain things.
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“My mum and dad were very good shielding us from it. We did not see any of the violence.
“The roads became too dangerous to pass, so eventually we had to pack up and leave.”
Apart from one visit to Victoria Falls for a wedding, Armand has not returned.
His parents Adele and Wade tried to start a new life in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa, but within five years diseased crops meant their flower-growing business had gone under and they had divorced.
“They had to go through a lot,” he added.
“You learn that you have to carry on going, there’s nothing you can do. We had to start again, that didn’t work, so had to start again from that.
“It really shows the strength of some people, like my mum — what she has been through and how far she has come. I would still love to go back to Zim. It is too tricky. “I imagine it is completely different to what I remember.”
Now, having taken the road less travelled to the England squad, via the University of Cape Town where he studied Psychology and Human Resources, the Stormers Super Rugby team and Rob Baxter’s Exeter Chiefs, Armand is charged with putting the national side back on track.
Conspicuous on the field with strapping round the “fin” haircut he describes as “business at the front, party at the back”, he is a force of nature down at Sandy Park. But brilliant club performances have only afforded him nine minutes of Test rugby, as a substitute on last June’s Argentina tour; Jones telling him to work harder. The comments surprise many, but not Armand — the head coach always tells the player first.
“Everyone else was kicking off about it,” he said.
“My mum was up in arms… “why is he saying this?” But I knew already and was not too bothered.
“What I like about him is that he is honest, he tells you what he wants.
“If you work with him and go in with an open mind he will make you a better player. If you fight against what he says and don’t agree with him you might not have such a good time.”
Armand’s mum, who now lives in Devon, has form in this regard. When her son represented the England Saxons in 2016 a South African website claimed he had played a month before qualifying on residency.
“My mum posted in the comments ‘he is actually here on ancestral grounds, he qualifies through his grandmother, please get your facts right before writing this stuff’,” Armand laughed.
“She signed off as ‘his mum’ which was quite funny! She is very protective — I told her not to, but I love the fact she did.”
Armand’s grandmother was a nurse in the War, his grandfather a field surgeon for the British Army in Egypt. His dad now races pigeons back in Zimbabwe.
Family is important to him— he was alerted to his call-up when taking his daughter Lori swimming last Sunday and first thought was that he now needed a baby-sitter.
But it is solving England’s miseries at the rucks that is suddenly his priority. — Daily Mail
