What was he thinking? So, why did Eddie let rip at two of Wales’ stars?

SO, here’s the question, what exactly was Eddie Jones playing at? Seldom can I remember an international rugby coach singling out individual players in the way the England boss did with Rhys Patchell and Alun Wyn Jones on Thursday.

It was genuinely startling and transformed what, up to then, had been a pretty quiet build-up to today’s Six Nations showdown at Twickenham.

Only the man himself really knows what his motive was, but clearly we can all play amateur psychologist.

So, here’s my attempt to get inside the mind of Eddie... How pre-meditated were Jones’ comments? Very. You only have to look at the context in which they were made.

Just to explain the set-up on the day, the Aussie was doing a series of interviews at England’s plush Pennyhill Park training base in leafy Surrey.

He did a live press conference for immediate publication, a writers’ briefing with a 10pm embargo and various pieces for TV and radio.

It very soon became apparent he had arrived there with an agenda and one particular Welsh player firmly in his sights – Rhys Patchell.

Time and again during his interviews, Jones turned the conversation round to the Scarlets fly-half, blatantly shoehorning him into his narrative. So, how did he do that exactly? Well, it’s very informative to look at the questions which actually led to him making comments about Patchell.

In just about every case, he wasn’t actually asked about the young Cardiffian.

But it’s clear from his responses he was looking for pretty much any opportunity to talk about the 24-year-old and get his message across. It happened repeatedly and often not with great subtlety.

Let’s go through the examples one by one.

Jones starts as he means to go on by referencing Patchell in his very first answer.

Asked why he had selected Jonathan Joseph in the centre in place of Ben Te’o, he lost no time at all in bringing up the Wales fly-half, saying every time he looked he would be seeing “JJ” in his vision, adding that it’s not a great sight.

A few minutes later, Jones was asked whether he had any concerns over the two tries England had conceded against Italy out in Rome.

Within a matter of seconds, he was to be found referencing Patchell’s international inexperience, the fact he’s Wales third choice 10 and that he’s “going to be under some heat, mate”.

Then we were on to his sit down with the writers and it was more of the same.

Asked whether it was a case of Wales being good or Scotland poor last Saturday, he quickly stressed how it would be different for Warren Gatland’s team this week in front of 82,000 fans at Twickenham and then again he singled out Patchell.

He said it would be a hell of an experience “for the kid” with the likes of Simmonds, Robshaw and Farrell running at him and added that he hoped he had the bottle. It wouldn’t be the last time he would mention that word.

Just a minute or so later, Jones was asked about George Ford and responded by talking about the experience he has around him before moving swiftly back to Patchell and contrasting his situation.

Then came his pointed suggestion that Alun Wyn Jones and Co would come down for breakfast on Saturday morning and be wondering whether their fly-half could handle the pressure.

And finally, just in case he hadn’t got his message across sufficiently, he responded to a question about what Joseph does best by again declaring that Patchell would see the centre’s head every time he gets the ball, cutting down his options. Was it a similar story with his critical comments about Alun Wyn? Well, he only brought him up the once, but again it was very much something he chose to put in the public domain.

Right towards the end of the writers’ briefing, I asked him for his thoughts on referee, Frenchman Jerome Garces.

That was the only invitation he needed, as he declared that Garces wouldn’t let Alun Wyn intimidate him.

As ears pricked up, he went on to say the Welsh skipper had been “right out of order” against Scotland, accusing him of trying to stop referee Pascal Gauzere from allowing Finn Russell’s conversion of Peter Horne’s try.

He also revealed he had spoken to World Rugby about it because of his concerns about the need to respect the integrity of the referee. And with that the laptop-tapping started. So what was Jones looking to achieve? Let’s start with Patchell. Well, there are various ways of reading it. It could be he thinks Patchell is flaky and by turning up the heat on him he will crumble.

Is it a case of him applying pressure on the inexperienced pivot he thinks is the Welsh weak link?

Could it be his attempt to get Patchell to become overly preoccupied with Jonathan Joseph, who is renowned for his ability to pull off interceptions and pounce on midfield errors?