I’ve got FIVE world class players in Rome says Eddie
“Dan Cole’s scrum position is improving all the time. He is at a great age to be the best tighthead in the world.”
“With Eddie it is more he mental side. e gives you confidence to go out there and play”
-Cris Robshaw
DAMNED if you do, damned if you don’t. That’s the hitch facing Eddie Jones’ England in Rome today, just as it is with any other side that draws Italy in the opening round of the Six Nations – or any round for that matter.
Win by a cricket score and be damned with faint praise because you are expected to thump the perpetual Wooden Spooners; win by anything less and it’s time to reach for the tin hat.
Those expectations will only be heightened by the callow side Azzurri coach Conor O’Shea has selected, with seven players in the Italy starting line-up to face Jones’ double champions making their first start in the tournament.
The England coach is a showman who promotes the sport with pizazz, and he was at it again just before England caught their flight to the Eternal City on Friday.
His watchwords this time were “brutal” and “ruthless”, and he left Ben Te’o – selected ahead of Jonathan Joseph at outside-centre – and his tight forwards in no doubt about how he wants Italy blitzed at the set-piece and in the midfield joust.
The Jones strategy with his own side is to allow no room for mental mush in terms of excuses for the two and a half years of non-stop rugby most of his leading players have undertaken. Nor does he seek refuge in a poor European Cup campaign by the Premiership clubs.
Jones says instead that he is about to launch a 2018 Six Nations blitzkrieg with a team that he says now has five players in world class territory – as opposed to mentioning only a couple of names (Billy Vunipola and Owen Farrell) during his first two seasons in charge.
The England boss says that Maro Itoje, Mako Vunipola, Anthony Watson and Dan Cole have earned promotion to join Farrell – with big Billy not included in the current count while he is injured.
Jones said: “Developing world class players is ongoing. There are a number of our players moving in the right direction – Maro, Mako, Owen and Anthony Watson are all guys racing towards that, and this is a great opportunity to put their foot forward.
“I think Dan Cole by the end of the Six Nations will be the premier tight-head in Europe. His body’s changed and his scrum position is improving all the time, and he’s at a great age – prime age at 31, 32 – to be the best tighthead in the world.”
Unless Cole has been shoring-up a disappointing Leicester pack all by himself, he is going to have to turn into a human bulldozer in this campaign in order to live up to that billing.
Asked if he considers his pack cornerstone to have had a bit of a rough ride when it comes to reviews Jones responded: “The Aussies like picking on him – they’re terrible people those Aussies! He has, but he has to accept that, work hard, keep improving his game, and you are going to see him really flourish in this Six Nations.”
He batted away the suggestion that he must have been disappointed Cole failed to challenge his Irish rival, Tadgh Furlong, as the Test tighthead on the Lions tour of New Zealand.
“I didn’t look at it like that. I was disappointed blokes got left out of the tour – Chris Robshaw, Mike Brown. But then when the tour started my hope was that they learned about how to beat the All Blacks. I wasn’t looking at them being in the starting guys because I had no involvement in that decision.”
That contradicts his pre-tour call for all his players to become Test Lions, or risk losing their England places. It also suggests that he does not believe that Harry Williams – on the bench against Italy – or Kyle Sinckler, who played three Tests off the bench for the Lions, are ready to spearhead the England scrum assault he promises. Jones revealed, however, that Itoje is now a force as a scrummaging lock, which can only be good news for Cole. “Maro is a great scrummager, probably one of the best in the world.” Jones was also quizzed about the progress made in the fitness gains he has insisted throughout his tenure that England must make in order to win the 2019 World Cup. His response to whether England would be the fittest side in the Six Nations was guarded. “That’s our aim. We don’t know until we see the other teams. Someone mentioned whether the Northern Hemisphere sides can beat the Southern Hemisphere sides at the World Cup. One of the reasons why the Northern Hemisphere sides have done well recently is because they are fitter.” He continued: “Wales have set the benchmark. Ireland are doing well on the back of the central contracting system. Scotland is the same. Italy are not far behind that. It allows them to spend more time (than us) with the players. We have to do it in other ways to be in the top echelon.”
pre-season style beasting sessions in The other ways Jones employs are England’s training regime, includys ing three dof it in the recent camp in Portugal. So, how did his squad respnd?
“Really well. I was really pleased by their atttude. We did a couple of different dys, probably termed old school in today’s terminology – some running, some wrestling, some good strong liftnig of weights. The players’ reponse to that was excellent. I thinit not only physically regenerate d them, but it mentally regenerated them.”
However he said that he believed his side stil had huge potential to improve their strength and condiing tioning, sait could increase by
20 per cent before the World Cup.
When it was put to Jones that this is a big leap, he said: “Not really. We are certainly capable of doing it. I have got no doubt that we will be 20 per cent fitter by the World Cup.”
It often appears as if Jones shoulders the PR load for this England team in its entirety, but this time he got a helping hand from former captain Chris Robshaw.
The Harlequins flanker was as candid as I can recall as he used his own experience as captain in the build-up to the 2015 World Cup under Stuart Lancaster to measure the impact Jones is having at the same stage in the run-up to the 2019 event.
“The big difference is that we have gone unbeaten in series (overseas) and picked up (Six Nations) silverware. Whereas unfortunately before, we never quite managed to get there. We finished the four Six Nations (campaigns) second and we were always the nearly guys. I don’t think we managed to win an autumn series or a summer tour with a clean sweep.
“We had some great games and stuff like that, but we were not quite ruthless enough. With Eddie and that bullish approach, he has given us that ruthless streak – he has instilled it in us.”
Robshaw says that Jones is also top of his list of coaches when it comes to his relationships with his players, and that he creates a rapport like no other coach he has come across.
“He is the best man-manager I have ever met. Every morning he will come in and speak to every single person on every table, go round and it gives you that personal touch. He knows how to get the best out of you...some people it may be texting them, other people it may be giving them a bit of a shouting, other people it is giving them that confidence and that love. Other people is having a bit of banter – whatever it may be, he knows how to read people extremely well.”
Robshaw highlights Jones’ breakfast routine: “He will come and say morning to everyone, how did you sleep, is everything ok? It won’t be a long conversation but he will touch base with every single person in the room. As a player I have never had that before from a coach or a DoR. You build that rapport and that connects you.”
Robshaw, who is back at openside against Italy, says that Jones is an expert at distilling mounds of tactical information into digestible form. He says it was evident when he told Robshaw he would be wearing 7.
“He said, ‘Mate, you’re playing seven, and that’s it. Good luck, go well, and just do what you do’. It makes no difference to me. Half the games this season at Quins I have played at seven. For me it doesn’t matter whether I play six or seven. I just go out and do my bit.”
Robshaw sums up: “With Eddie I think it is more the mental side. He gives you that confidence to go out there and play well.
“He doesn’t over-complicate things. A lot of coaches will tell you to go away and work on ten things, and if you do all ten they will find something else and you still won’t be in the team. He will tell players to work on two or three things – and if you can do that you will be in my side. He’s very to the point. He is bullish with his approach, and that has made this side ballsy.”
Ballsy enough for Fast Eddie’s England to win a record third Six Nations title on the trot? A win over Italy is a start, but it will not provide anything close to conclusive proof.