Sunday, Sunday so good for Eddie
SUNDAY, Sunday”. If Eddie Jones said it once he said it 20 times as he used it as a mantra to bat away any questions relating to the past – as in the win over Ireland eight days ago – or the future, as in playing France in the pool round of this year’s World Cup.
A day before tackling France at Twickenham, the England head coach was hammering home the message that complacency is a poisonous vapour that can seep through the smallest cracks.
Jones, right, made it clear that the best defence against complacency creeping into his camp is concentrating fully on the job in hand, which in this instance is beating Jacques Brunel’s bruisers in the second round of the Six Nations. Pool stuff in Japan, or chatter about victory in Dublin, can go hang.
This was ‘Edgy Eddie’, as he made clear when asked whether his players talking about having fun during a Test match made him feel confident they were in the right zone.
“One week ago you guys were writing about Ireland as the best team in the world, and now they’ve suffered one defeat, they’ve got four guys out injured, now it’s batten down the hatches. We live in a world where things keep changing all the time. So, everything is not good within our team, but I think we’re going in the right direction.”
Asked about Owen Farrell’s improved captaincy against Ireland, which had a level-headed maturity about it – and if the growth of leadership in the England squad would get to the point of making him redundant – Jones showed no signs of going quietly into the night.
“I might be redundant now, and suddenly, if we happened to lose on Sunday, then I become important – and you blokes want to stab me in the back. So, I don’t become redundant. Is the team progressing in the right direction? I think we are, but it is step by step. We are making sure we are focussed on what is important at that particular time, and the most important thing now is play well against France on Sunday.”
On the Farrell leadership front Jones was unwilling to make any forecast regarding his skipper’s ability to strike up a rapport with Nigel Owens, the referee in charge of the French game.
“He’s definitely moving in the right direction. From last week, and particularly with this referee, he’s being well supported by a good group of lieutenants.
“Captaincy is about having different situations, learning from it, and when you’ve made a mistake, don’t make that mistake again. That’s where Owen is still learning his craft.
“The players are increasingly taking more responsibility for the team, and Owen’s a great driver in making sure that everyone knows their role, everyone understands the principles of how they want to play.” One of those principles, especially against a French team whose big forwards have endurance problems, is to play a high tempo game. If possible. Jones says: “We have just had the Japanese coaches with us for the week, Jamie Joseph and Tony Brown, and they are aiming to have ball in play close to 50 minutes in a Test match. France average 30 minutes. They kick the ball out a lot, have long stoppages before scrums, and they are things we really can’t control. So, it is hard to get pace in the game against them. “There are a couple of ways we can get a bit of pace in the game on Sunday, and we have investigated those... I do know that we have to have fatigue in the game.”
Jones admits he is nervous, not least because a French team which have lost 15 of their last 18 Tests are far bigger underdogs at Twickenham than England were in Dublin.
“Every game makes you nervous because you know that if you’re off your game a little bit and they’re on their game, you’re going to find yourself on the wrong side of things.”
Asked for his own outstanding memories of coaching against France, Jones broke his rule momentarily and looked to the future: “Sunday, Sunday will be, because it will be our best performance.”