Jones’ men chasing 18 wins in a row but tension fills the air ahead of key clash
Tim Visser talked yesterday of a perceived lack of confidence within the england camp and, indeed, it was a day of surreal tension at england’s base, where the confrontational mood was at odds with the team’s historic, 17-game winning streak.
There was even a mysterious injury scare involving Owen Farrell, who went down during training, was treated and left the field, but appeared to be fine despite mixed messages about the state of his knee.
The clarity and strong statements came from edinburgh, where Vern Cotter named a side featuring the promoted flanker, Hamish Watson.
eddie Jones announced his line-up yesterday, with the expected return of Jack Nowell, Jonathan Joseph and Ben Youngs, but with Billy Vunipola held back on the bench after his comeback from injury — allowing Nathan Hughes to continue at No 8.
The england coach explained that decision by saying: ‘He’s one of our best players, but he’s not ready to start yet.’
in reference to Farrell, Jones enjoyed playing smoke and mirrors, adding: ‘He could be in doubt. He’s got a bad leg, so he couldn’t finish training. He’ll be all right. i think. He’s in doubt, but we’ll see. He should be right. He just ran into someone at training — as simple as that. He’ll be all right… possibly.’ Clear as mud. Bizarrely, england’s players proceeded to trot out the same party-line joke that Farrell had run into Jones’ dog, Annie — who invaded the training pitch a couple of weeks ago.
if the worst-case scenario came to pass and england lost the heartbeat of their back line, would they have a decent contingency plan?
‘it’s an “if” or “maybe”, but i’m not going to waste much headspace because i’m fairly confident he’ll be fine,’ said captain Dylan Hartley.
All the indications are that Farrell should be fit, but mis-information has become a regular theme, so nothing is certain.
There was an almighty commotion after england’s last match in this rBs six Nations, as they laboured for so long to negate italy’s ploy of not committing men to the breakdown.
scotland have shown an innovative streak of their own, but Jones was adamant tomorrow’s visitors to Twickenham would not pursue what he regards as spoiling tactics.
‘i know scotland are going to participate in the spirit of the game, so we don’t need to worry,’ he said.
Whether or not they are worrying, england are being strangely defensive. No wonder it has led scotland to claim that their rivals are under pressure.
And All Blacks legend Zinzan Brooke says england do not deserve to ‘pop champagne’ if they equal his country’s 18-Test record tomorrow because they have still not beaten the Kiwis.
Despite being undefeated under Jones, Brooke believes england’s winning run would come to an abrupt end if they faced steve Hansen’s All Blacks.
england have not played the No 1-ranked Kiwis since 2014 and, speaking to Sportsmail, Brooke claimed the red rose record is ‘just a number’.
‘is this england team as good as the New Zealand team that won 18 in a row? No,’ said Brooke.
‘Which coach would relish a Test between england and the All Blacks? i’d say steve Hansen. They’re in a good place for a team that lost 750 caps of experience.
‘if i were in that england team, i wouldn’t be popping a bottle of champagne. You’ve taken the record but you haven’t played the team with back-to-back World Cups. How does that work? You’ve set a number but haven’t played the best team in the world.’
New Zealand’s 18-Test run included the 2015 World Cup final and overlapped the retirement of Kiwi legends richie mcCaw, Dan Carter and ma’a Nonu, though interestingly they didn’t face england during that time.
‘england’s run started against Uruguay,’ added Brooke. ‘That’s a good one, isn’t it? But there’s nothing that says you have to play the best team in the world to break the record.
‘eddie Jones flipped his lid when italy outsmarted them. i’ve watched quite a bit of the New Zealand franchises and the Lions are going to have to take 50 players down there. ‘i’d back the All Blacks against
england.’