WE’VE GOT WHAT IT TAKES TO CONQUER THE WORLD
Jones sure England have beating of Boks
EDDIE JONES sends England into the Rugby World Cup final insisting his players know what it takes to become champions.
South Africa are the last obstacle to a prize Jones has spent every waking hour preparing for since taking charge at the end of 2015.
Coaches and players have come and gone as the workaholic boss has driven a team humiliated at their own World Cup to the brink of glory here in Japan.
Now comes judgment day and the Australian is convinced his Red Rose heroes are ready to deliver.
Jones said: “The squad know how hard they’re going to have to work to win the game.
“They know South Africa aren’t going to give us the game. They know we’ve got to go out there and win it.
“But this team want to work for each other – 20 teams came into the tournament wanting to win but the big difference between teams is the will to prepare to win. The will is the difficult part because it’s hard.
“You’ve got to do it every day, you’ve got to be prepared to get up and work a bit harder every day – and most people don’t want to do it. But this team’s done it superbly and this is our opportunity to put it all together.”
Jones yesterday enlisted Jonny Wilkinson to oversee drop-goal practice as the team put the finishing touches to their preparations.
Wilkinson was the matchwinner the last time England made the Final back in 2003, slotting the last-gasp drop goal to clinch glory.
England have not employed the drop goal all tournament but mindful of its value 16 years ago want to make sure they have it in their armoury.
They go into the Final boosted by a string of nominations for the World Rugby awards, including Team of the Year, Coach of the Year (Jones),
Breakthrough player of the Year ( Joe Cokanasiga) and Player of the Year (Tom Curry).
They were given a further lift with a good luck message from Prince Harry among the thousands to arrive at the team hotel.
Sam Underhill said: “Prince Harry showed us his little lad in an England shirt. It was a nice touch.”
A jackpot payout of close to £7million awaits the England squad if they win today, amounting to around £225,000 per player. A victory parade has been booked for central London on Tuesday.
But none of that will happen, Jones warned, unless England stay firmly in the moment.
He added: “They need to take in the excitement. What they don’t need to take in is the distractions.
“Because now everyone’s your mate. Everyone wants to have a cup of coffee, ‘You got a spare ticket mate?’ Blokes that
weren’t your mates are now your mates, family members want tickets, long-lost cousins want tickets, there’s more fans around the hotel. Every time you go out you’ve got to sign. “So that’s all part of it. You’ve got to work out what you need to do to be at your best and then say no to the other things.” Meanwhile, skipper Owen Farrell will today call his team into a huddle and tell them the strength to achieve a lifelong goal lies within the circle. He will look into the eyes of team-mates and assure them that together they have everything required to leave Japan as champions of the world. The England captain said: “We give off to each other all the confidence and belief that we need. “We’re not bothered about things that don’t really matter. We’ve got a good feel for how the group is and where the group is – and we’ll be open enough to feel what’s needed.” Farrell’s stock-in-trade is not soundbites. Rugby is his language. Always has been. But even he could not quite mask his excitement. He added: “Everybody grows up wanting to be involved in this game. You think as a kid, ‘How good would it be to be involved in a World Cup final?’
“Now this opportunity has come around you want to enjoy it, you want to go for it.
“You don’t want to dip your toe in and see what happens, you want to throw all of yourself into it. That’s the way we’ll look to go about it.”
Farrell is first among equals, the leader of a team stronger than the sum of its individual parts. There is star quality yet this is a side even now relatively known.
Curry and Underhill each has a claim to be player of the tournament. They even have a catchy nickname, courtesy of Jones.
Yet between them the “kamikaze kids” have a Twitter following which comes up short of 15,000. Raheem Sterling has 2.1million.
That is remarkable given the size of this achievement. Across Jones’ entire squad only three players – Farrell, Manu Tuilagi and Maro Itoje – have hit six figures.
It highlights the extent to which this is a truly team effort and why the unassuming Farrell, contrary to the expectation of many, has proved the perfect front man. Ask him the secret of his captaincy success and this reluctant hero deflects praise to all corners of his squad.
He said: “Everything that has gone into us being able to enjoy this tournament and love every minute of it, as we have, has been a form of leadership.
“That could be someone who is quiet, someone who is loud, someone who is funny, someone who is not funny.
“Everybody is different, everybody leads in their own way. The most important thing with this group is it is authentic, it is genuine.”
Farrell’s presence makes South Africans wary ahead of a game so important to both countries.
Schalk Burger, who helped the Boks beat England to the title in 2007 before joining Farrell at Saracens, said: “Owen is very intense, very rugby-orientated.
“But he’s improved massively on a social and also an emotional intelligence level. He understands what’s needed for the team.
“That comes with experience and maybe life changes. He’s become a husband and a father. Those things improve you as a leader in understanding there’s more than one way to get the best out your team.”