Pressure is going to be chasing All Blacks down the street
JONES CRANKS UP THE MIND GAMES
IT WAS a landmark day at the Imperial Palace yesterday with the enthronement of Japan’s new emperor – an event steeped in Shinto ritual.
A few miles away across Tokyo another great tradition was being re-enacted – the ancient art of the Eddie Jones pre-match mind game.
The master of ceremonies was holding court at the Disneyland hotel, where England are staying ahead of their Rugby World Cup semifinal against New Zealand.
Around the corner, Steve Borthwick was doing his laptop lineout analysis in a lobby cafe where half the other diners had on Mickey Mouse ears.
For Jones, in full Cheshire Cat mode but with a Scar-like glint in his eye, it was the All Blacks who had his full attention – and he had the double world champions on the psychiatrist’s couch.
“New Zealand talk about walking towards pressure, well this week the pressure is going to be chasing them down the street,” said Jones.
“Pressure is a real thing. The busiest bloke in Tokyo this week will be Gilbert Enoka, their mental skills coach.
“They have to deal with all this pressure of winning the World Cup three times [in a row] and it is potentially the last game for their greatest coach and their greatest captain and they will be thinking about those things. Those thoughts go through your head.
“It is always harder to defend a World Cup and they will be thinking about that, and therefore there is pressure.
“There’s no pressure on us, we’ve just got to have a great week, enjoy it, relax. No one thinks we can win.”
Jones’s evidence for that claim was a poll conducted among his questioners yesterday, when they were asked to put their hands up if they thought England could win. The poll closed before anyone had time to do so. Like Walt Disney himself, England’s head coach creates his own reality but, if it helps transport his team into the mental state they will need to beat New Zealand, then the end justifies the means.
Mind games matter in weeks of this magnitude.
The notion of New Zealand crumbling mentally in this semi-final, which will be refereed by Wales’s Nigel Owens, is a long shot. Few national teams in any sport live with the constant pressure the All Blacks do as the astonishingly successful flagbearer for a small country.
But Jones clearly thinks it is worth a try to destabilise their opponents.
“Progressively, we’ve built a game that we think we can take New Zealand with – and we’ve done that over the last two-anda-half years,” said Jones.
“We’re just excited by the possibility. There is a togetherness in this team that will carry them through difficult moments.
“In a semi-final there will be big moments in the game. That will decide the game. We are well equipped to handle those moments.”
England’s challenge will probably stand or fall by their destructive defence constructed by former All Blacks head coach John Mitchell. “We love the physical nature of the game and we are looking forward to applying it at the weekend.”
New Zealand will start as favourites in Yokohama. But in the week that Japan formally welcomed a new emperor, England have a succession plan.
Jones said: “It’s a change in history isn’t it? It’s a change in the history of Japan and now we are going to have a change in the history of the World Cup. It’s nice symmetry. I do believe in omens.”