Hairdryer treatment hasn’t worked for 20 years
The BIG ASK England coach Eddie Jones is competing in his seventh Six Nations. He tells that he is throwing everything into retaining the title but has become better at letting go in other areas
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HOW DID YOU RESPOND TO ENGLAND LOSING THEIR OPENING MATCH AGAINST SCOTLAND?
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What happens when you are coach of England and you lose a game is that everyone tends to come out of the woodwork. They all have opinions. What I tend to do is focus on a few consistent ones from people who maybe I have trusted before and then investigate a bit more. Then I go back to the tried and trusted process of asking what’s really important? What’s really going to make a difference? And then I do a plan. I have thick papers to scribble on. folders, World Cup medals, all the stuff mother was the same. I remember
I keep in the office came from Japan. going to her mother’s house and
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YOU’VE BEEN AROUND IN On the Monday I got the news that I because Japanese are big present AND LOUIS TOP-LEVEL COACHING FOR A was going to become England coach. givers she had a garden shed full of REES-ZAMMIT? QUARTER OF A CENTURY AND BEEN On the Tuesday I was out of there and presents. She kept everything. I think
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He’s quick and he can certainly TO THREE WORLD CUP FINALS. THAT’S I asked someone to send it over. I’ve that is the reason why my wife is so
sniff a try – but there are plenty A LOT OF SCRIBBLING. DO YOU never seen it. They could be anywhere. against keeping things.
KEEP ALL THE PLANS? of good wingers in the competition.
Someone has probably sold the gold YOU MENTIONED A LACK OF We’ve got two good ones.
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I used to keep everything. I used and silver World Cup medals by now, AROUSAL IN THE ENGLAND SIDE IN
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to have paper stacked up. I was lost everything. THE FIRST TWO GAMES. IS IT TIME FOR WHAT ABOUT ENGLAND?
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carrying around files way back from THE JONES HAIRDRYER? WHAT CAN YOU PROMISE THE the Brumbies and from when I first COUNTRY’S FANS? A A
coached professionally. The one thing that doesn’t work Our third game will be out best No it didn’t. One of the things these days is that. That finished
Q game. We’ve come off Scotland, THE FILING CABINETS YOU KEPT that I have been taught by my 20 years ago. You have to give against Italy we were better and we’ll THE NOTES IN MUST HAVE BEEN A wife is not to worry about material players a big enough why to do things.
TREASURE TROVE? be much better against Wales.
things. We have an in and out rule QUIETENING THE PRINCIPALITY
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They used to be. I lost two in our house. If something comes in, STADIUM WOULD HAVE BEEN A actually. After the 2015 World Cup something must go out. I come from GOOD ‘WHY’. WILL YOU MISS 70,000 I went to the Stormers. I was there two a family where we kept stuff. You WELSHMEN BAYING FOR ENGLAND’S weeks. On the Sunday all my game never threw anything out. My wife’s BLOOD NEXT WEEKEND?
DIDN’T THAT UPSET YOU? NEIL SQUIRES
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The crowd at the Principality Stadium is raucous but I think most players love to go there. It’s a great challenge to play Wales in those conditions when you know the crowd is going to be quite influential. We’re probably quite disappointed there’s no crowd in there.
Q WHAT DO YOU MAKE OF WALES SO FAR?
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They’ve had two good, tough wins. Their work-rate off the ball is far higher than it was in the autumn and they’ve got more line speed in their defence.
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● Eddie Jones is an Umbro ambassador. For more information visit umbro.co.uk/rugby or follow @Umbro_Rugby on Instagram.
WAYNE ROONEY’S Derby revival was put to the test by Rams old boy Will Hughes in a Vicarage Road wind tunnel.
With Watford bidding to move level on points with Brentford in the Championship’s automatic promotion places, Rooney was left to rue the influence of ex-Rams favourite Hughes.
Baring his teeth for the first time as a manager, despite the euphoria of a last-minute winner at Wycombe on Tuesday night, Rooney expressed manifest displeasure with the performance – and backed it up by making five changes.
But after the pedestrian, stagnant football of his predecessor Phillip Cocu, five
Rams30pt wins from their previous six games lifted Rooney’s away from trouble.
Six points adrift of safety when England’s record goalscorer took charge, Derby look safe for now. But they were on the back foot after two goals in two minutes – from their first shots on goal – put the Hornets in charge.
First Ismaila Sarr’s burst of pace and low cross was deflected by Andre Wisdom and Joao Pedro claimed his eighth goal of the season – although he knew little about it – from close range. Pedro had scored a sublime winner, rifled into the top corner, in the clubs’ previous meeting four months ago. This one owed more to good fortune.
Then Hughes, against his former club, tried his luck from 20 yards and hit the jackpot after another helpful deflection off Nathan Byrne.
Derby thought they had reduced the deficit six minutes before the break when Colin Kazim-Richards beat Daniel Bachmann to head home Byrne’s corner. But referee Tim Robinson spotted a non-existent foul in the sixyard box. The Rams finally found a way past 49 0 4 0 10 9 2 0
Bachmann with 13 minutes left. Byrne’s cross just evaded Kazim-Richards but Hornets defender William Troost-Ekong turned it high into his own net to set up a frantic finish.
WATFORD (4-3-3): Bachmann 5; Femenia 8, Troost-Ekong 5, Cathcart 7, Masina 7; Cleverley 7, Chalobah 7 (Gosling 60, 6), Hughes 8 (Wilmot 76); Sarr 8, Pedro 6, Sema (Zinckernagel 76). Goals: Joao Pedro 19, Hughes 21
DERBY (4-2-3-1): Marshall 6; Byrne 7, Wisdom 6, Edmundson 6, Buchanan 5; Shinnie 6 (Gregory 58, 6), Bird 6; Kazim-Richards 7, Roberts 5 (Jozwiak 58, 6), Knight 7; Waghorn 6 (Sibley 81). Goal: TroostEkong 77 og.