READY EDDIE GO...

Jones was just unable to resist making a return with England

FOR Eddie Jones, the cleansing process took place at a CrossFit camp with his wife, Hiroko, on the island of Okinawa in the Pacific Ocean.

He allowed himself seven days off after England’s World Cup final defeat, before returning to his office at Twickenham.

It would have been easy to walk away. Jones could have stayed in Japan and cashed in as a club coach but he could not resist a second bite.

It all starts again in Paris today, as England take their first steps towards healing the wounds inflicted by South Africa three months ago.

‘You go through a grieving period,’ said Jones. ‘Clive Woodward locked himself in a room for three days. My wife would kick me out of bed.

We did CrossFit three times a day. I enjoyed a class called Thrusters… you don’t have to think, you just get in there and rip in.

‘It was a bit of a cleansing then I came back and was ready to go. I loved being a 60-year-old competing against 40-year-olds… seeing if I can beat them.’

It is a similar scenario in the Six Nations for Jones. Time will tell if he is older and wiser.

His message has been about peaking at World Cups but Jones Mk2 is interested in the here and now.

He has kept together the bulk of the squad from Japan and hopes a few significant tweaks will make the difference. Matt Proudfoot and

Simon Amor have joined his coaching team, while he has addressed problems at the scrum and full-back by selecting Joe Marler and George Furbank today. Evolution, rather than revolution.

Jones’ contract expires next year but, if his tuning exercise is successful, then he could well stay on until 2023.

‘The only reason I’m continuing is because I think this team can improve,’ said Jones.

‘The RFU only want me to continue if they think I can improve the team. The contract is important from a legal point of view but they want to win and I want to win.

‘I was only ever going to continue if I thought that I could keep improving the team.

‘I heard Pep Guardiola talking about whether he’s going to re-sign at Man City. The players tell you whether you should continue or not and that’s what I’m looking it. It’s a bit like that for me.

‘The players will let me know. If the players play well and the team is going well, then maybe you should continue. If the team’s indifferent then maybe they need a change.

‘I only coach because I love the game. I want to make a team that’s worthwhile watching. The exciting thing for me is that we’ve got a squad that’s already good but they’re still young enough to grow. Then we bring these 10 young guys in — Alex Moon, Will Stuart, George Furbank, Ted Hill — who have all got their careers ahead of them.

‘I want them to have an opportunity to be as good as they can. Over the next period of time I think we can become the best rugby team ever… that’s the exciting bit.’

Meanwhile, today opener against France will be Tom Curry’s first start at No8 after Billy Vunipola was ruled out of the tournament by a broken arm.

‘I don’t think my game changes massively because of this,’ said the 2019 World Player of the Year nominee. ‘I want to stay true to myself.

‘An eight will get into different positions to a six or seven, so there might be a few more opportunities to carry and I may be in the backfield a bit more.

‘As a team we need to go at France from zero to 80 and must be relentless.

‘Every tackle, every carry, every clean-out has to be done with the fullest intent we have.’