EDDIE’S ‘RED HOT’ PRESSURE
ENGLAND coach Eddie Jones labelled Scotland “red-hot favourites” for the old rivals’ Six Nations opener at Murrayfield on Saturday – and he may have a point.
The 62-year-old Australian is well known for trying to unsettle opponents with choice words to the media.
But with England beating South Africa, the team that defeated Jones’ men in the 2019 World Cup final, last time out, why bother with pre-match mind games?
Injuries, however, have deprived Jones of first-choice captain Owen Farrell and back-up skipper Courtney Lawes, as well as Jonny May, Anthony Watson, Manu Tuilagi, Sam Underhill, Jonny Hill, and the Vunipola brothers for the latest edition of rugby’s oldest international fixture. England will face a rather more settled Scotland, a team Jones thinks is “probably two years ahead of us in terms of their development”.
The Scots will also be playing in front of a 67,000 capacity crowd at their Edinburgh headquarters after a 2021 Six Nations staged behind closed doors because of the pandemic.
The forecast for wet and windy weather won’t help England either.
“It’s the first time I’ve had the experience of going up there when Scotland have been red-hot favourites,” said Jones. “They’re expected to win...they’ve got to cope with that.”
No wonder Scotland counterpart Gregor Townsend, whose improving side beat England last year – the
Scots’ first Calcutta Cup triumph at Twickenham since 1983 – said: “Every coach does this little song and dance going into a game trying to convince the media they’re underdogs.”
With Farrell and Lawes ruled out, Jones has appointed Tom Curry as captain with the 23-year-old flanker England’s youngest skipper since Will Carling in 1988.
And in another piece of pre-game theatre, Jones promptly said Curry reminded him of New Zealand great Richie Mccaw in that he could “lead by example”.
That Jones does things differently to many rugby coaches is because, as the son of a Japanese-american mother and an Australian father, he was very different to the many privately educated rugby players he encountered during his early days in the Sydney club game.
Jones was Australia’s coach when they lost the 2033 World Cup final in Sydney to a Jonny Wilkinson-inspired England but, after being sacked two years later, admitted he had “stayed too long” with the Wallabies.
Yet Jones, often portrayed as an obsessive workaholic with a high turnover of backroom staff, will have had some eight years as England coach by the time his current deal expires after the 2023 World Cup in France.
He may, however, be mellowing judging by his avuncular concern for 22-year-old rising star Marcus Smith, whose talent Jones first spotted when the fly-half was a teenager.
Now he has preferred Smith to 77cap veteran George Ford in his starting XV for Saturday, with Jones saying: “Every young 10 starts off at this stage – there are doubts about his experience to handle the pressure of the situation.
“At some stage they play a game bigger than they’ve ever played. I’ve got no doubt Marcus has got the desire and the drive to be one of the best 10s in the world.”
It was Smith’s last-ditch penalty that sealed a one-point win over the Springboks in November, with Jones saying: “He was able to get use from our 22 to their 22 to kick the goal to win the game.