JONES: I’LL GIVE MANU ONE LAST CHANCE
Jones backing firebrand Hartley to stay captain
EDDIE JONES yesterday suggested he will welcome back bad boys Manu Tuilagi and Denny Solomona into the England camp. Leicester centre Tuilagi and Sale wing Solomona were sent home in disgrace from last month’s squad get-together at the Lensbury Club in Teddington, south west London, after a late-night drinking escapade. Jones, who revealed he had travelled to Leicester to see Tuilagi face to face, will give them one more chance. But he warned the 26-year-old, who has a record of indiscipline: ‘If he does it again, then he’ll be spending a lot more time in the Midlands.’ Jones added: ‘We’re just assessing them. Everyone makes mistakes. If they are eligible for selection and I meet with them — and I’ve met one of them already — and their attitude is right, we will pick them. ‘They understand they made a poor choice. But it’s all over now and they’re moving on.’
EDDIE JONES yesterday revealed the scale of the opposition he faced after selecting Dylan Hartley as his England captain.
It included a leading public school threatening to give up the sport in protest at the poor example serial disciplinary offender Hartley would set to the pupils. But Jones was full of praise for his skipper and the way he has led England for two seasons — just as his place is under threat from Jamie George, who started all three Tests for the Lions in New Zealand.
Speaking at the Soccerex global convention in Manchester, Jones also gave Hartley the credit for setting ground rules in camp, including not looking at phones at meal times or in team meetings. An England doctor was caught checking the Liverpool score in a restaurant and was immediately made to do 10 press-ups before leaving. Jones said: ‘I remember when we named Dylan as captain, the RFU got a stack of letters. One of the prominent public schools threatened to pull out of rugby. They thought, “How can you put this lunatic in charge of the national team?”. He is a lunatic, but a nice lunatic. Nice lunatics are good to run a team. He’s not the greatest player in the world, but he leads by example.
‘He’s got that earthiness about him. He’s a boy from Rotorua, who got up to no good in Rotorua. If you’ve been to Rotorua, there’s not much to do there. He knows the value of how hard he has to work and because he leads like that it sets a great example for the rest of the team. Now there are at least four or five players who mimic his behaviour and now we are starting to get a tipping point in the team where if you don’t give 100 per cent, then you aren’t going to be part of the team.’
However, the England coach makes no promises that Hartley will continue as captain, with George such a strong contender for the hooker position. He said: ‘As always we are balancing it up and obviously we’ll look at how the players come up after the Lions tour. We have a camp later this month in Oxford and all things being equal he’ll be captain then. But it’s literally a series by series appointment. He knows that.’
Jones revealed that he had changed his methods after watching Manchester City coach Pep Guardiola drill his players at former club Bayern Munich. ‘ I’ve worked my players much harder since,’ said Jones. ‘It was only a 20-minute session with three sides of seven players working on finding space, but they came off the pitch exhausted. And like football, rugby is all about finding space.’ Jones limits his team meetings to 15 minutes and makes a maximum of three points so the message is easy to digest. But it was Hartley who came up with the restrictions on mobile use which Jones says led to the team doctor’s embarrassment. He said: ‘Who cares how a team gets on in the Europa League? — and the players’ code stops James Haskell from putting another semi-naked picture of himself on Instagram.’
However, he singled out Haskell (left) when asked which players he particularly liked, adding: ‘It’s nice if you’re liked but respect is the most important thing. I only care if my dog loves me.
‘In England, there’s definitely a fear of not doing what everyone else is doing. Players like to get comfortable, have a nice house, drive a Range Rover, like to do the same thing every day in training. To get them to have the courage to try to be different is the biggest trick. Don’t be comfortable, be uncomfortable.’