‘It’s why we love Eddie’
The Eddie Jones show in Tokyo this week was not solely for the All Blacks’ benefit. His England players were watching and were both entertained and enthused by their coach’s decision to light the fuse on the mind games ahead of Saturday’s World Cup semifinal against the All Blacks.
Just moments earlier across town All Blacks coach Steve Hansen had declared he was not entering into the ‘‘psychological mind games’’ of a big test week heading into the Yokohama showdown many are tipping as the real final of this tournament. ‘‘Sometimes you’re better to not bother going there and sometimes you are,’’ Hansen said. ‘‘Eddie will decide whether he wants to go there and I’ve already decided what I want to do. You’ll have to wait and see.’’
Jones certainly ‘‘went there’’ soon after those comments were uttered, delivering a command performance at his Tuesday press conference where, among other things, he accused someone (possibly the All Blacks) of spying on his team at training earlier that day, attempted to heap all the pressure of the occasion on to the New Zealanders, accused the Kiwi media of being
‘‘fans with keyboards’’ and said the
‘‘busiest bloke in Tokyo this week’’ would be
Hansen’s mental skills coach
Gilbert Enoka.
Experienced England halfback Ben Youngs confirmed yesterday his coach’s performance had not slipped his notice.
‘‘That’s Eddie,’’ said the halfback who will play his 94th test for England on Saturday. ‘‘I watched it back and I enjoyed it.
‘‘From the point of view of us players, we just concentrate on what we have to do and let Eddie do his thing.’’
But Youngs said Jones had very much instilled a belief in this England team that they could topple the All Blacks for the first time at a World Cup and just the second time in their last 17 tests against them.
‘‘We’ve got confidence. Every time we take the field there’s a belief we can win and this weekend will be no different,’’ Youngs said.
‘‘We built up the belief last week before playing Australia and we’ll build up the belief this week ahead of New Zealand.’’.
Star loose forward Sam Underhill, who played so well in 2018’s knife-edge 16-15 loss to the All Blacks at Twickenham, said he too had taken in his coach’s press conference.
‘‘It was good I thought. I thought he was pretty funny, but to the point. What did you guys think?’’
Underhill said belief was something this England outfit, under Jones, was not short on.
‘‘It’s an organic thing. I don’t think you can artificially create belief in a group. For us now it’s an accumulation of the 120 days we’ve been away, an accumulation of all that work together, that understanding each other and knowing what each other is capable of.
‘‘That’s where that belief comes from.’’
England assistant coach Steve Borthwick was also not surprised by Jones’ cat among the pigeons performance on Tuesday.
‘‘Anybody who knows Eddie Jones knows for any test match he’s focused on winning, and this is the same. He’s a fantastic coach who wants to help this team win.
‘‘This is a guy who has been to finals, has been in big test matches throughout his career and seen it all. That experience and calmness he brings is fantastic.’’