Jones’ ‘finishers’ flourish thanks to Teague’s expertise and insight

The latest addition to England’s fulltime coaching staff may also be the least conspicuous figure among Eddie Jones’s lieutenants, but Rory Teague’s expertise and insight have already earned glowing endorsements.

Teague, appointed the England Under-20s attack and skills coach from Saracens’ academy a year ago, was incorporated into Jones’s set-up on a part-time basis last November.

After a reported approach from Northampton, keen to replace Alex King, the highly-rated 32-year-old was handed a permanent role under Jones last month. Two wins into England’s Grand Slam defence, he has made a positive impression.

“Rory’s a good guy,” said James Haskell, who undertook a series of oneon-ones with Teague towards the end of a six-month lay-off following surgery to reattach a tendon and repair the plantar plate in his foot.

“He travels everywhere with a combination of different balls in his bag. He’d come to Wasps and we’d do 30 or 40 minutes of handling – passing under pressure, reaction and co-ordination stuff. When you’re a professional rugby player at a club, you’ll be given a programme and that’s great. But if you want to get anywhere in life, you have to look outside the box.

“One of the things I said to Eddie was that you don’t see the ball a lot while you’re injured, because you’re doing rehab and everything else. I said I needed that, so Rory came to the club once a week and we’d work on skills between weights sessions.”

With forwards guru Steve Borthwick non-committal about his prospects of starting next Sunday against Italy at Twickenham, Haskell admits he enjoys the role of “going balls to the wall” as a second-half impact replacement.

In eye-catching cameos against France and Wales the flanker’s dynamic running reinvigorated England’s punchy attacking patterns. Though he sat out last Tuesday’s high-intensity drills, Haskell credited squad sports scientist Dean Benton for stretching and mobility sessions that have left him feeling more agile and, in his words, less “like a wardrobe with a head”.

Ben Te’o has been another of these influential “finishers” – to use a phrase championed by Wallabies coach Michael Cheika at the 2015 World Cup before being adopted by Jones recently. The centre leant on Teague’s touchline composure in the Principality Stadium cauldron, a hostile atmosphere he compared to his experience of Australian rugby league’s State of Origin, when he came on with Wales leading 16-11 and just 15 minutes on the clock.

Whereas Teague’s cousin ‘Iron’ Mike was revered for his abrasive tenacity in the back rows of Gloucester, England and the Lions, it was the tactical perception of Rory, a former fly-half, that helped hard-carrying Te’o.

“I don’t like to get emotionally involved in the game while I’m on the bench,” he said. “So I’m just worrying about my own position. It’s probably a little mental switch and things I go through in my own mind because when I come on I want to make a difference .

“I might ask Rory what he thinks, what he is seeing. He will give me one sentence and that is all I need. I might ask him about how they are defending. He might say ‘They are up and in’ or ‘They’re a bit softer, pushing to the sideline’. He might say where I could hit a line. But I don’t