Poms pull a big surprise

WILY master coach Eddie Jones will do anything to pummel the Wallabies, even broker an astonishing truce between 136-year-old rugby adversaries England and Wales to stir up the right pack intensity.

What Jones pulled off through his forwards coach Steve Borthwick on Monday was unprecedented, with the two estranged nations co-operating for a full-on opposed forwards session that ended peacefully under the “Battle of Bristol” tag.

The most astonishing slant is to imagine Wallabies boss Michael Cheika suddenly asking All Blacks coach Steve Hansen for a matey training run together a few weeks before belting each other in a Bledisloe Cup Test. No way.

Wallabies prop Scott Sio laughed off the idea of scrummaging training against the All Blacks when saying the Welsh had clearly agreed to the session to sharpen up for the Test against Australia in Cardiff early on Sunday morning.