NATIONS2017NOW Eddie’s heroes
REPORTS IT IS the big picture that dominates – grand designs on Grand Slams and aerial views of world records. But it is the individual brush strokes which build up the masterpiece.
England’s drive towards greatness which, according to Eddie Jones, lies just 80 tantalising minutes away, has been constructed on minutiae and this week the squad have been benefiting from the small print again.
England Under-21s goalkeeping coach Tim Dittmer has been working with the squad on their restarts this week, just as Chelsea’s goalkeeping coach Christophe Lollichon did earlier in the championship.
They represent a departure from the norm, but since when did the norm deliver something to separate a side from the competition?
“We want people who have better skills and better knowledge than we have. We want to get better all the time. Football in Europe is the No1 professional sport so we want to learn from them,” said Jones.
“Goalkeeping coaches in football are exceptional at teaching players how to track the ball. Kick-off catching in particular is about tracking the ball. We’ve improved in that area. Courtney Lawes took a couple of great ones at the weekend.
“So we get those people in to try to learn from them and how we can improve our coaching in those key areas.”
Judo, mixed martial arts, eye gyms... England have dipped into them all this season.
Sometimes when a coach calls in assistance from other disciplines, it can be met with suspicion and reluctance by players but, whether through fear or desperation to fulfil their potential, under Jones the buy-in has been total.
For an old hand like Danny Care, who has played under three England managements, it has been a revelation. “I’ve never seen such hard work from the lads, from the coaches and the backroom staff – everyone who’s on this journey to try to become the No1 team in the world – to leave no stone unturned to get there,” he said.
Beating Ireland tomorrow will not move England from No2 in the rankings – New Zealand will remain top dogs – but it would elevate them alongside the highest achievers in European terms.
The stuttering performances of the first few weeks of the Six Nations were, Jones concluded, a reflection of the discomfort his players felt at being in such a position.
Having confronted the issue in Oxford a fortnight ago, England delivered a liberated display against Scotland. And on Sunday evening Jones told them straight: Win one more game and you become a great side.
“The team have embraced it,” he said. “To go from where we were to greatness takes another step of endeavour. It takes greater focus, it takes greater persistence, it takes greater emotional output. It’s like climbing up a mountain; every time you go to another level it becomes more unstable. Your ears hurt, your nose hurts.
“It’s exactly the same when you’re climbing the ladder of success – everything becomes a bit harder and sometimes you’ve got to just stop and say, ‘Right, this is what’s ahead of us’.
“Probably we weren’t very good at that. In retrospect, that’s my fault. We’ve done that and the players have understood the challenges ahead and re-equipped for them.” It is a big weekend for English rugby. England are aiming for an unprecedented triple Slam in Ireland with the Under-20s and women’s team also unbeaten. If the Under-20s, led by Bath’s Zach Mercer, can complete the set at Donnybrook it will be their first Slam since 2011, while the women’s team, flourishing as full-time professionals, are on course tonight for their first clean sweep in five years. For Jones’ flagship team, it would be a first Grand Slam in 12 months. There are not many coaches in the history of the championship who have had cause to ponder that. SUMMER Test tours will be pushed back from June to July after 2019 under a new agreement announced by World Rugby. THE Lions have confirmed the appointments of Neil Jenkins as kicking coach and Graham Rowntree as scrum coach for this summer’s tour of New Zealand.