Eddie plays mind games at double
EDDIE JONES started the mind games with his own England squad before turning to hosts Argentina on the first full day of the two-Test tour.
Firstly, the Australian shocked his squad by leaving them to it and letting them run a team meeting themselves. Then he turned his attention to winding up the Pumas.
And in General Election week he challenged his youngsters to aim for rugby’s highest office.
Jones has long berated the lack of leaders in English rugby – he claims the academy generation are spoon-fed and cannot think for themselves.
And with 18 untried players on tour, he is desperate to see who can be turned into a driver of the team, and has even promoted uncapped Saracens star Alex Lozowski to the leadership group.
So he divided the teams into forwards and backs for units’ meetings yesterday in their Buenos Aires hotel, which the players thought would be run by the coaches.
But Jones walked in and out of both rooms, his assistants did not get involved, and the players were left to get on with it.
“We have got quite a unique demographic here so there are opportunities for people to jump from being a backbencher to being Prime Minister,” he said.
“We very much want to have two levels of management, one is the staff, one is the players – there might be some different players but this is still England, and we want the players to be responsible, self-driven and self-reliant. We set up as if the coaches were going to run it and then got the players to run it. They are the sorts of things we are doing to constantly develop the leadership of the players and to develop more responsibility.
“Be a participant, don’t be a recipient. Professional sport, to a large extent, is educating players to be a recipient and it’s our great belief that to be a World Cup-winning team you need to be a participant.”
Fly-half George Ford said: “One big thing Eddie is driving for is us taking control of everything we do. Ultimately, it is us on the field at the weekend.”
England play the first Test in San Juan on Saturday and Jones’ next trick was to claim that all the pressure was on Argentina, despite the Pumas being seven places lower than secondplaced England in the world rankings.
Jones said Argentina are struggling and was not sure whether they would play their traditional macho game or chuck the ball around. He said: “They didn’t have a great 2016 and know they will play an understrength England side, so all the pressure is on them.
“When you are under pressure, you can do one of two things. You can become even more adventurous or you can revert back to type.
“Everyone eats steaks here, everyone wants to bullfight and everyone wants to scrum, so it is a matter of where they go. Our preparation has got to be so that we are prepared for either.”
Players can jump to be PM