SIX NATIONS 2020 REDS R SE Jones wants to copy Kop’s dominance

Edwards gets heads-up for England Farrell counts his blessings

Alex Spink

EDDIE JONES wants his England rugby team to be spoken of in the same breath as Jurgen Klopp’s all-conquering Liverpool.

Three months to the day since being battered by South Africa in the World Cup Final, England return to work with what has the potential to be an explosive Six Nations clash against France.

Jones says he has been through a period of ‘grieving’ as he battles to come to terms with his second final loss, after Australia in 2003.

Hurt

He tells how he threw his body into an exhaustive week of physical exercise – taking on men and women 20 years younger at a Crossfit camp in Japan – in an attempt to flush out the hurt.

But when it comes to helping his players get over the biggest disappointment of their lives he has turned to motivation.

He started by declaring that England would become “the greatest team the world of rugby has ever seen” – one that would “stop the nation” when they played.

And last night he challenged them to emulate Klopp’s world and

European club champions, the runaway unbeaten leaders of the Premier League.

“Everyone wants to watch Liverpool, don’t they?” he said. “Because they play with that ferocity. They play with that desire and they never get beaten.

“Even when they do get beaten, they haven’t been beaten. We want people to speak about us like that. It’s more than just wins and losses, we want to have an effect on how the nation sees rugby.

“The number of football fans that have come up to me and said they watched England in the World Cup semi-final... When you play that sort of rugby, people want to watch you. Like Liverpool now.”

By looking forward with such

SHAUN EDWARDS admits he faces one of the biggest challenges of his career in shutting down England’s attack today.

But he believes he has been given a good start by head coach Fabien Galthie in implementing his methods.

New France defence coach Edwards saw Galthie – then an purpose Jones is hoping his players don’t dwell on the past – even after one of rugby’s greatest performances only two games ago.

The magnitude of their final defeat left them searching for answers, but unable to identify one to adequately explain the loss.

“Getting over it wasn’t a straightforward process,” he revealed. “You go through a grieving period. I remember Clive Woodward saying he went and locked himself in a room for three days after 1999, and he did the same after the 2005 Lions.

“I had three weeks in Japan, one of which I didn’t do any rugby at all. It’s probably the longest I’ve assistant to Jacques Brunel – on the pitch after Wales eliminated the French in the World Cup quarter-final, knowing they would soon work together.

“I went up to Fabien and told him how fantastic France had been.

“I said, ‘You’ve been coaching the defence haven’t you?’ He

ANDY FARRELL experienced the luck of the Irish as his Test debut in the coaching hot-seat ended in victory.

A massive Stuart Hogg blunder with a try within his grasp, and a careless tackle by Sam Johnson

Grieving

laughed and said, ‘No, I’ve been coaching your defence.’

“Fabien was pretty honest in that he copied the way Wales did it. It was about 90 per cent the same, which is beneficial.

“The big things like line speed and working in twos were already embedded in the French lads.” for Scotland, allowed Ireland to build a seven-point lead in the final minutes through Johnny Sexton – with the new skipper scoring all of his side’s points on the night.

Scotland believed they were about to leave Dublin with a precious draw after rumbling to within inches of Ireland’s line. gone without rugby. I did Crossfit three times a day.

“You don’t think. You just get in there and rip in. It’s ridiculous at our age but I love being a 60-yearold competing against 40-year-olds, seeing if I can beat them.”

Jones resumed work, identifying that teams which lose World Cup finals tend to fall away in the next four years as they “don’t have that forensic want to look into everything and tear everything apart”.

He then did exactly that, appointing two new coaches, changing the way England train and picking an uncapped full-back in George Furbank for today’s clash.

“The only reason I’m continuing is because I think this team can improve,” added the Australian.

Ireland 19 Scotland 12

Had they scored then, the conversion would have been a simple tap-over – but man-ofthe-match CJ Stander had other ideas, with his late turnover securing Ireland’s win.

Farrell said: “It was a tough, attritional game and we’re very happy to come out with a win.

“Johnny Sexton hasn’t played