England scale heights, but summit is still far off
Jones warns team rout of Ireland is just staging post en route to Japan, writes Gavin Mairs
‘The only thing you do know is you’ve got to keep going forward, and that’s hard’
Rekindling memories of Jim Telfer’s legendary Lions speech on the series victory against South Africa in 1997, Eddie Jones has likened his side’s preparation for the World Cup in Japan to ascending Mount Everest.
For Jones, though, the record 57-15, eight-try demolition of Ireland at Twickenham on Saturday is still miles from what he believes is his side’s summit. The hardest work is yet to come, Jones insists, starting with an intense conditioning trip to Treviso, their second trip to the Italian city this summer, this week.
“You have ideas in your head but you never know exactly where you need to be because you don’t know
where the opposition are,” said Jones. “If we’re at the bottom of Mount Everest, we’ve got to plan to be at base camp three by now, but [if ] everyone else is at base camp five, then your plan is wrong.
“So you’ve got to keep evaluating, keep looking, you don’t know where you should or where you shouldn’t be. But the only thing you do know is you’ve got to keep going forward and that’s hard. It’s like climbing a mountain: the higher you get, the more uncomfortable it gets, the ground gets shaky, your ears start to burn, your nose starts to run, and that’s where we’re getting into that territory because we’ve got to push it forward again.”
If future gains remain uncertain, what is clear though is that England’s time together since June has already paid rich dividends. In stark contrast to Ireland, who looked distinctly underdone in their capitulation in the first World Cup warm-up outing for most of their first-choice side, it is hard to remember an England side in more intimidating physical condition.
The power of Manu Tuilagi and Joe Cokanasiga rightly stole the immediate headlines, with three tries between them, but, as Jones correctly highlighted, it was the phenomenal impact of the forwards in front of them that laid Ireland bare.
It was a just reward that four of the tries came from the pack, with Maro Itoje, George Kruis – who were outstanding at the line-out where Ireland lost six of their throws – Tom Curry, and Luke Cowan-dickie all scoring.
As if the past three years have merely been a phoney war, Jones appears in his element, using the unrestricted access to his players in this three-month preparation period to hone them into a squad who even at this stage seem genuine contenders in Japan.
Conditioning and bonding, notwithstanding the altercation between Ben Te’o and Mike Brown, are where Jones feels there has been most advancement.
The Lions comparison comes to mind again, with Jones putting an emphasis on blending together the different mindsets from the 12 Premiership clubs, and claiming the sum was already greater than the parts. He is constantly disrupting their routines too – they arrived deliberately 20 minutes later than normal on Saturday – to ensure they are ready for all of the challenges of Japan.
“We’re massively fitter. I think you can see that, we’ve got body-shape changes,” said Jones. “Look at big Billy [Vunipola] over there, he’s incredible mate. And then the ability of the players to spend time whilst they’re still together, work out problems and develop better relationships.
“For an England side that is quite a difficult thing because you’ve got 12 clubs here that have all different philosophies and the players are employed by the clubs. If someone pays you money, you’re loyal to that club. So to have time together as a team and for them to work out differences for a better relationship is massive for us.”
The younger players in the squad, such as Kyle Sinckler, who at times was operating like a powerhouse fly-half on Saturday, combining explosive brawn with sweet hands, have benefited the most, according to Jones.
“In a Test week it’s business all the time; now we have time to have sessions – they’re not all drinking sessions but we do have some drinking sessions – but the sessions where the players just communicate and guys like [Ellis] Genge and even Sincks to a certain extent are able to develop better relationships with the players they don’t really know.”
Jones saw evidence of that newfound unity even in the narrow defeat by Wales in Cardiff.
“I thought we showed plenty of fight in that last game,” Jones added. “They’ve gone full strength for the second week in a row, they’ve been threatened with non-selection, they’ve got 72,000 Welsh fans there and they’re going flipping nuts because the referee can’t control the game.
“There’s every reason for us to fracture but we didn’t because we had young blokes playing, guys who haven’t had a lot of rugby and we stuck to the task. In the end it was one try that should have been
disallowed that cost us the game and I thought that was a really good indication of the togetherness of the side coming through.”
Tuilagi, who turned back the years on Saturday with a display of similar destructive impact to the 19-year-old who forced his way into England’s 2011 World Cup squad, is the totem example of the gains the squad have made.
His direct running, combined with the power of Vunipola, and the ferocious physicality of Curry and Sam Underhill, ensured that the creative switch to start with George Ford and Owen Farrell allowed England to carve open Ireland’s defence almost at will following Jordan Larmour’s try.
“He [Tuilagi] is a finely tuned athlete,” said Jonny May. “There are not many people his size who move as fast or as powerfully as him. He has got to be looked after and they have to get it just right. He has managed to have 12 weeks of getting what he needs and now he is showing it out on the pitch.”
Onwards and upwards England.
Scores 3-0 Farrell pen; 3-5 Larmour try; 3-7 Byrne con; 8-7 Cokanasiga try; 8-10 Byrne pen; 13-10 Daly try; 15-10 Farrell con; 20-10 Tuilagi try; 22-10 Farrell con; 27-10 Itoje try; 29-10 Farrell con; 34-10 Kruis try; 36-10 Farrell con; 41-10 Curry try; 43-10 Farrell con; 48-10 Cokanasiga try; 50-10 Farrell con; 50-15 Aki try; 55-15 Cowan-dickie try; 57-15 Ford con.
England E Daly; J Cokanasiga, M Tuilagi (J Marchant 71), O Farrell (P Francis 68), J May; G Ford, B Youngs
(W Heinz 54); J Marler (M Vunipola 61), J George (L Cowan-dickie 54), K Sinckler (D Cole 60), M Itoje, G Kruis, T Curry (C Lawes 58), S Underhill (M Wilson 58), B Vunipola. Sin-bin Kruis.
Ireland R Kearney (A Conway 54); J Larmour, G Ringrose, B Aki, J Stockdale; R Byrne (J Carty 54), C Murray (L Mcgrath 41); C Healy (J Mcgrath 40), R Best (S Cronin 54), T Furlong (A Porter 54), I Henderson (T Beirne 61), J Kleyn (D Toner 54), P O’mahony, J van der Flier, CJ Stander.
Referee Nigel Owens (Wales).