Eddie’s long running love affair on the south coast
IN recent years Brighton College has emerged as a training centre for the England rugby team under Eddie Jones who uses the school’s outstanding facilities for short camps at the start of a new season or ahead of a summer tour.
For Jones his love affair with Brighton College started with Japan in 2015 when it was the training facility allocated to the Brave Blossoms in the early part of RWC2015 and in particular the ten days leading up to their historic win over the Springboks at Brighton’s Amex Stadium.
Jones and his squad started to feel very at home in Brighton. They also struck up a good friendship with head of rugby Nick Buoy and he and the Japanese team conducted a couple of coaching sessions with the outstanding young Brighton XV that was coming through during this period, including the precocious talent of Marcus Smith.
When he was appointed England coach at the end of 2015 Jones started taking England down for short camps with the squad staying at a hotel at Brighton Marina. To the delight of the school the coaching sessions continued to the mutual enjoyment of both Eddie and Brighton’s two senior squads. Smith continued to impress and in no time had been invited to attend a full England session.
Jones’ messages to the Brighton squads was simple: “I know from watching schools rugby all over the world that there is a great temptation to concentrate on winning above all else. Winning must come second to skills.
“Coaches have to put the building blocks in place so skills are developed. The attention on winning is great in one sense but it does not necessarily produce good rugby players. You have to get that balance between fundamental skills and being obsessed with winning.
“When I did a session or two with the Brighton team I was reminded a bit of Japan. They had really skilful, fit players but did not have a huge amount of bulk or size. As a team they were going to succeed by maximising the strengths and abilities they did possess and by not getting too involved in the setpiece game their opponents wanted.”