‘Don’t tell me how to train’
EDDIE JONES has turned his guns on critics of his training methods and sparked yet another club versus country rumpus.
Bath owner Bruce Craig was the latest to slam Jones’s regime after five of his players were injured at England’s training camp, but the Australian insists Craig has no right to interfere.
Prop Beno Obano was the latest Bath casualty and will be out for up to a year after suffering a serious knee ligament injury at England’s get-together in Brighton.
Anthony Watson, Tom Ellis, Sam Underhill and Dave Attwood have all been injured in Jones’s care and Sam Jones, the Wasps flanker, was forced to retire after suffering a leg and ankle injury in a wrestling drill at the notorious 2016 camp.
Jack Nowell, George Kruis, Tom Curry and Jonny May have also been crocked on England training duty but the combative Jones says clubs are not qualified to instruct him on how to prepare a team.
“We prepare players for Test matches,” said Jones. “I don’t think anyone at a club has the right to tell a coach how to train a Test team.
“I don’t have any concerns. We train appropriately for Test match rugby. The only reason I’d alter it is if we need to train harder, or we need to train lighter, to be at our best for Test matches.
“You never want to get players injured, you’re always looking to train appropriately, but we play a collision sport.
“The context of how we are going to train is the same as we did for the Australia and Argentina tours. We realise the players have played a number of games and will train appropriately.”
Worcester and Lions centre Ben Te’o was the latest to head to the operating theatre when he pulled out of the tour to South Africa after aggravating a thigh injury in the gym.
Jones said: “He got the injury in the Six Nations against France, it is one of those corks and when you’ve got a cork you’ve always got damage the muscle and to HITTING BACK: Jones says the clubs should keep quiet sometimes they repair and sometimes they don’t. He’ll be back for next season. “As you see on the tour, there were 17 players from the Lions and we’ve got nine available and a lot of those injuries have happened in games, not training.” England fly to Durban via Johannesburg on Saturday and will be based on the east coast for most of the trip as its climate is closest to Japan’s, where next year’s World Cup will be held. Billy Vunipola will be on the plane after playing for Sarries on Saturday in the Premiership final but may not be fit for the first Test on June 9.