Mike Ford waits to learn fate of sinking Bath with coach set for meeting with Bruce Craig

Mike Ford waits to learn fate of sinking Bath with coach set for meeting with Bruce Craig Bath coach Mike Ford will meet owner Bruce Craig after loss to Gloucester 2015 Aviva Premiership runners-up have endured nightmare start this term Ford Sr admits that confidence is fragile with the side currently in ninth Mike Ford, having lost his son George to England duty, faces an anxious wait to find out if Bath owner Bruce Craig will keep faith with him after the club’s latest humiliating home defeat to Gloucester on Friday. Last season’s Aviva Premiership finalists have endured a nightmare start to the season, losing seven of their opening 10 games. They currently lie ninth, despite huge investment from their multi-millionaire owner in recent years while possessing the biggest playing budget in the league.

Mike Ford, having lost his son George to England duty, faces an anxious wait to find out if Bath owner Bruce Craig will keep faith with him after the club’s latest humiliating home defeat to Gloucester on Friday. Last season’s Aviva Premiership finalists have endured a nightmare start to the season, losing seven of their opening 10 games. They currently lie ninth, despite huge investment from their multi-millionaire owner in recent years while possessing the biggest playing budget in the league.

Ireland will provide Wales with an element of the unknown without departed captain Paul O'Connell, says Alun Wyn Jones

Ireland will provide Wales with an element of the unknown without departed captain Paul O'Connell, says Alun Wyn Jones Paul O'Connell retired from international rugby during the World Cup Alun Wyn Jones wants to be the most revered lock in Northern Hemisphere Wales forward will miss locking horns with O'Connell in Six Nations clash Jamie Roberts will make his 31st consecutive Six Nations start for Wales Wales lock Alun Wyn Jones believes Ireland will offer an element of the unknown without Paul O'Connell. After a 13-year Test career, the Ireland skipper retired from international rugby during the World Cup, relinquishing his position as the most revered lock in the Northern Hemisphere. Jones is ready to take over O'Connell's title, starting with Sunday's Six Nations opener at the Aviva Stadium, after almost a decade spent 'locking horns' with the Irishman.

'A few of their players have retired and their playing dynamic will change,' said Jones. 'There will be no Paul O'Connell. Do I think about that? Yes and no. I will miss locking horns with him. You cannot shy away from the effective guy he was in his position. Devin Toner played alongside him for a long time and has been doing very well for Leinster.

'It will be interesting to see how the dynamic works. The Six Nations will be interesting because there has been a lot of change in terms of captains and coaches.' While Ireland, England and France are all going through post-World Cup transitions, Wales will stick to the same formula, with not a single uncapped player in their squad. Jamie Roberts will make his 31st consecutive Six Nations start on Sunday and, while his side boast one of the best defensive records, the centre is targeting improvements in attack. 'If you watch Wales games and look back over the years, our inability to convert those chances into tries has let us down somewhat,' said Roberts. 'You could probably identify 10 or 20 individual moments when you look back over last year or two. 'That clinical edge is something we have been working on. Hopefully, in the Six Nations, we will carry on creating the same amount of scoring opportunities — and take them.'

George Ford and Owen Farrell starting to click for England... and will only get better

George Ford and Owen Farrell starting to click for England... and will only get better Playmaker George Ford and Owen Farrell showed potential and chemistry Farrell missed two kicks but he recovered well to kick a crucial penalty James Haskell was immense in dictating the line to keep Scotland at bay Dylan Hartley set to change people's perceptions of him with his captaincy It’s always comforting for a fly-half to have a No 12 who can help call the shots and the combination of George Ford and Owen Farrell certainly showed potential. The two played together at age-group level and, in the build-up to Jack Nowell’s second-half try, they justified Eddie Jones’ decision to deploy a second playmaker in the backline. Ford put the ball through the hands before Farrell took charge around the back to send Nowell over after a slick intervention from the silky hands of Mako Vunipola.

HUNGRY HASKELL Every time Scotland looked to attack they ran into a white wall of English defenders. Despite some exciting running by Stuart Hogg, they never really looked like scoring and Paul Gustard’s influence was clear to see. As defence coach, he’s introduced Saracens’ style straight into the England team and that defence is going to be very, very hard to penetrate. It will only get stronger with time. MY STAR MAN Billy Vunipola made a staggering 19 carries and Eddie Jones clearly sees him as a guy to get England on the front-foot. He grows every time he pulls on the jersey and didn’t tire between the first and last minute. You could hear the players shouting ‘smash, smash, smash’. The line speed was fast and aggressive and, rather than tackling as individuals, they were operating as a defensive unit. James Haskell seemed to be dictating the line speed and he really relished that style of play. The players are the defensive bricks but it’s that structure that creates the wall.

COOL-HAND HARTLEY Dylan Hartley’s critics were all waiting for him to kick out but I think he will prove an excellent appointment as captain. On the field he lives and dies by the sword. He plays at 100 miles per hour and there’s no doubt he will lead from the front. He kept his cool throughout the match and I think people’s perceptions of Dylan will change as they get to know him — he’s a very calm-headed guy most of the time and makes smart decisions. England turned down three points when they were 12-6 up in the 56th minute, with Hartley calling for a kick to the corner. They failed to score and Scotland could have scored an interception try if Finn Russell had seen Hogg outside him. After going for the corner cost England their World Cup pool match against Wales, the media will always jump on those kind of decisions but you’ve just got to make sure you have a calculated thought process.

Billy Vunipola praises new coach Eddie Jones as he admits squad are having fun

Billy Vunipola praises new coach Eddie Jones as he admits squad are having fun under the new England management Billy Vunipola is out to prove people wrong after the World Cup calamity England made the perfect start to the post-Lancaster era in Scotland Jones labelled team 'shabby' in attack but was pleased to win first game Billy Vunipola hailed new coach Eddie Jones a 'great guy' and insisted England have taken the first step towards proving their critics wrong. Man of the match after a towering performance in England's hard-fought 15-9 win, Vunipola said: 'It was a tough trip to start with, but we had the same last year, and we just hope we can carry this on.' It was England's first match since their World Cup calamity and the first under new coach Jones. Vunipola added: 'We wanted to prove people wrong. We didn't do great in the World Cup, but it's gone now and we're just having fun.

'Eddie is a great guy. I hope we keep the right side of him because he's funny, very personable.' Jones labelled his team 'shabby' in attack but was delighted with a win in his first game. 'This is virtually a new team doing new things and it's a really well done job,' he said. 'We've won the Calcutta Cup. 'We were a bit shabby in attack, but I thought that would be the case. Our tackles will mature as we spend more time together.' And Jones insists the sky is the limit for the Saracens back-rower. 'He wasn't bad was he,' said the coach with a smile. 'I have read all the articles about him being too slow to play number eight. He's doing a pretty good job as a slow number eight. 'I thought he was outstanding with his carrying and defence work. He can be the best number eight in the world, I've no doubt about that.' England now head to Rome to face Italy next week and former Japan coach Jones admits he has enjoyed his Six Nations introduction. 'It was interesting coming in the bus with all the Scottish supporters coming out the pub,' he said. 'When we got off the Scottish were going crazy. There was one little English boy with his beanie on outside the bus and for five minutes he yelled out, 'Come on England, come on England'. 'His voice was getting drowned out but he kept going and that was a little like the team today. We kept plugging away and, in the end, won the game easily.' Scotland coach Vern Cotter, meanwhile. felt his side let slip a rare chance of beating England but says they will look to put the loss behind them as quickly as possible.

'They're very disappointed players,' he said. 'We created opportunities, we didn't finish them off. But there's a lot more to come from the team I think. 'They are disappointed with the way they let those opportunities pass by through lost balls and bits and pieces, but they'll be quickly identified and we'll put the frustrations behind us. 'We can't do much about this one but we'll certainly look to the next one. 'We can do better than that, we know we can. That game was there to be won.'

England set the tone for Eddie Jones... Six Nations victory over Scotland wasn't pretty but new regime lay down marker in Murrayfield opener

England set the tone for Eddie Jones... Six Nations victory over Scotland wasn't pretty but new regime lay down marker in Murrayfield opener England beat Scotland 15-9 at Murrayfield in opening Six Nations fixture It was new coach Eddie Jones' first game after replacing Stuart Lancaster This game was about moving on from the disastrous home World Cup Jones has done away with the principled approach of his predecessor That was obvious with his appointment of Dylan Hartley as the captain This felt like more of the same but it is unfair to expect too much, too soon George Kruis and Jack Nowell scored tries as England earned the victory A band of pipers, five rows deep and four wide, led the England team bus into Murrayfield, walking slowly and deliberately as they played, making it last, letting the visiting players and management feel the atmosphere and see the hostile faces jutting through the railings and hear the jeers as they walked down the steps. The players strode on to the concourse and stared around them. And after the giants had descended, a small, dapper man in a white shirt, a red tie and a dark pullover emerged from the bus, too. Eddie Jones, the new England coach, savoured the atmosphere for a moment and then marched straight towards the double doors and into the ground. He was ready for BUSINESS. Only one thing distracted him. ‘The Scottish were going crazy when we got off the bus,’ Jones said. ‘But there was one English kid with his little beanie hat on and he kept singing: “Come on England, come on England”. His voice was being drowned out a bit but he kept going and that was just like England today.’

In those preliminaries, the World Cup and being cheered to the rafters during that choreographed walk to the Lion Gate at Twickenham with a nation still clinging to hope, seemed an awfully long time ago. That was a good thing. No one wants to remember the World Cup. For England, this Calcutta Cup was about starting again. England’s first game of the 2016 Six Nations was about change. Or, at least, it was about the desire for change. It was about the start of Jones’s reign and putting some distance between his regime and his predecessor, Stuart Lancaster, whose schoolmasterly strictures about teamwork, respect, enjoyment, discipline and sportsmanship, once admired and praised, have now become the subject of ridicule. Jones is not about principle. He is about pragmatism. He does not care how England win or whether they win playing expansive rugby. He knows that results above all other things win popularity, so even though his post-match press conference had more highlights than the match, he was happy. His reign was ushered in not with a fanfare but a dirge. Desperate to look forward and break with a tortured recent past, this was a performance that harked back to the failings of the World Cup. A win is a win is a win but this one screamed out its mediocrity across the ground’s gathering winter gloom.

Its significance lay solely in the fact that it was Jones’s first game in charge and that his new team dug out a 15-9 victory. The highlights reel will not last long because, be assured, it wasn’t pretty. It wasn’t even particularly encouraging. It was dour and attritional, as Calcutta Cup clashes so often are, but at least England saw it out. ‘We stuck at it,’ said England’s new captain, Dylan Hartley. ‘We found a way to win.’ Vern Cotter, the Scotland coach, was similarly minimalist in his assessment. ‘They were big and physical and they held the ball quite well,’ he said. ‘They were playing a percentage game.’ The atmosphere was disappointingly quiet and Scotland matched it. After the advances they seemed to have made in the World Cup, this was a diffident display, pockmarked with inconsistencies and ERRORS. They dominated for periods but let England escape too easily. Jones must be relieved he had such mediocre opposition on his debut.

Much has been made of the early change of tone under Jones. Partly because not much else is different. Yes, only nine of the 15 men who started the forlorn last match of last year’s tournament against Uruguay were in the line-up but the core has not altered and the revolution in the back row has not happened. What is left is the cult of personality. In the short time since he took the job, Jones has been characterised as a maniacally intense workaholic from whom his players will find no hiding place if they do not please him. He has been known to make grown men cry with the ferocity of his criticism. He walked amongst his players as they went through their drills before the game, scrutinising them. Looking dapper, he is a man who exudes the need for control and, as the first half wore on, he began to look increasingly tense in the coaches’ box.

Maybe that was because this felt like more of the same from England. It is unfair to expect too much, too soon and this has rarely been a fixture that has thrilled for the expansiveness of its rugby but, even so, this was dour average stuff. It didn’t feel like a clean break. It felt like the kind of continuity nobody wanted. England made a decent start and went ahead when George Kruis forced his way over the line early on but then familiar failings set in. Scotland were poor and England were not much better. Their play was beset by handling ERRORS and the kind of lapses in discipline that dogged so much of their wretched World Cup. Still ponderous at the breakdown, where they were made to look so sluggish against Australia, in particular, they allowed Scotland to edge their way back and, by half-time, the home side had reduced the margin to a single point and were pressing England into doughty defence in front of their own posts.

England, understandably, felt very much like a work in progress but for all their sloppiness and all their vulnerability, their defence was impressive and they deserved CREDIT for keeping the Scots at bay when they were in the ascendancy. Still, it was the kind of game that recalled the fact that every one of the World Cup semi-finalists was from the Southern Hemisphere. This was not the kind of rugby that will have New Zealand, Australia, South Africa or Argentina worrying about a Northern Hemisphere resurgence. At least Jones was able to end the evening with a little levity. When he was asked whether he would rotate his squad for the clash with Italy in Rome next weekend, he flashed a mischievous smile. ‘The only thing I have ever seen rotate, mate,’ he said, ‘is a spinning top.’

Justin Hemmes steps out in $500,000 sports car for a casual drive in Sydney

Showing his worth! Hotelier Justin Hemmes steps out in $500,000 sports car as he enjoys a casual drive around Sydney

He is one of Sydney's best-known entrepreneurs, and on Thursday Justin Hemmes flashed his worth as he stepped out in Sydney with his McLaren 650S Coupé. 

The luxury black vehicle is worth a whopping $500,000 and features Batman-style doors which open upwards.

The 43-year-old showed off a blunt look as he parked his luxury automobile on the side of one of Paddington’s busy street.

He dressed to impress for his quick outing in a pair of dark skinny-cut slacks and a short-sleeves button-up shirt.

Justin slicked his golden locks back and tucked it behind his ears as he showed off his unshaven facial hair.

While his partner Katie Fowler and newborn daughter were nowhere to be seen, the worthy businessman was accompanied by a female companion.

Justin and Kate became parents for the first time last November.

The loved-up couple announced the exciting news of their daughter's arrival on social media.

'Alexa Merivale Hemmes. Born Thursday 5th of November at 2:34am. The most magical moment imaginable. Yet you continue to enchant us more and more each day. We cannot wait to share our lives with you,' Kate, 25, wrote at the time.

Following the tiny tot's arrival Justin opened up about her birth to the Manly Daily revealing he was 'bawling' when he first laid eyes on her.

Since expanding their family, Justin has regularly taken to his Instagram account to document the quick growth of his princess.

Justin is the CEO of the Merivale empire, which includes hot nightspots The Ivy in Sydney and Coogee Pavilion.