NEW BOY ITOJE CAN LIFT ENGLAND TO 15-POINT VICTORY
SIR CLIVE WOODWARD’S VERDICT
THIS evening is the first ‘ mustwin’ game of Eddie Jones’s reign. Defeat against an injury-ravaged Ireland at Twickenham would be a massive setback. After two good wins on the road, England should be disappointed if they don’t go on to win this RBS 6 Nations.
England are returning to Twickenham for the first time since losing to Australia in the World Cup and must play in a manner to inspire the fans. It is to be hoped that there has been more nervous energy in the air at training this week. That often breeds big performances.
So far, Eddie has played a blinder. He is showing the sure touch one expects from an experienced operator and has comfortably won the war of words, although I expect Warren Gatland will give him a run for his money before the Wales game!
Before the Scotland match, Eddie dismissed Scotland’s chances of a home win, giving no heed to the improvement and spirit they showed at the World Cup. Eddie deals in fact not fiction and England losing to Scotland would have been a major upset.
Scotland coach Vern Cotter refused to engage in a debate and the bubble of Scottish confidence was pricked. The result was an utterly lacklustre performance.
Against Italy, Eddie boldly asserted that England would give them a good hiding. Again no response from coach Jacques Brunel. The angry Italian players had steam coming out of their ears and smashed into England for the first 50 minutes. That was all very well but Italy then hit the wall like they did in the bad old days, exactly as Eddie had wanted, and England cruised home.
Now against Ireland he has been goading them and their coach, Joe Schmidt. There have been his comments about whoever wins the ‘Aussie Rules’ contest will win the game, and a far from complimentary reference to the kick-chase tactics Ireland often employ.
They were derogatory comments from a coach who has not even completed a Six Nations campaign yet, but Eddie is no fool and knows exactly what he is doing.
He knows full well that Ireland are more than just a kicking team but it is their ‘go-to’ game and, as Ireland suffer with a long injury list, I do not believe they have the players to switch easily to a Plan B or C.
Such comments can play on your mind. Before the 1991 World Cup final I had England as overwhelming favourites to smash Australia up front and win. Yet that week, another Aussie, David Campese, led the criticism of England’s limited but effective forwards game plan which clearly hit a nerve. Come the final, England started running from everywhere — not very well — and neglected the need to dominate up front. It was a confused performance.
I wonder what Ireland’s tactics will be tonight. Do they take Jones’s criticism to heart and try to alter their approach or do they conform to stereotype?
The war of words has always been part of sport, especially in rugby where you are probing all the time for mental as well as physical weaknesses. For most of the time, everything said at the press conferences — even the apparently off-the-cuff line — is well choreographed and it is looking for a specific reaction.
It is refreshing to see Eddie (right) flying in like this. I used to thrive on it and just wish the other coaches would roll up their sleeves and throw away their media training.
My week leading into games with Australia under Eddie were the most testing of all because he is razor sharp and the Aussie media were always right with him. My rule of thumb was to try to get in the first blow and set the agenda.
Once we were playing in Melbourne under the roof and the assumption was that the ‘whingeing Poms’ would kick up a huge fuss about ridiculous ‘ indoor rugby’. Instead, from the outset, I laid it on thick about how delighted we were to be playing indoors because it always favoured the best and most skilful team, which was England.
Australia were just not quick enough or coached well enough to cope with the pace of my England team on a lightning fast indoor track. Happy days as far as I was concerned, although it was one of the few times I managed to put Eddie and the Aussie media firmly on the back foot!
When it comes down to it, they are only words but it is all about going toe-to-toe with the opposition and not backing down.
I was also very interested in how my words would affect my players.
In talking to the media you are also talking to them. It is a great way of putting your own players under pressure. Build that pressure up, don’t ease off. Eddie’s approach is in stark contrast to Stuart Lancaster’s. Lancaster would play a straight bat but Eddie has come in and gone for the jugular, even at Ireland who have won the last two Six Nations Championships and humbled England in Dublin last year.
It is a purposeful approach as he sets out re-establishing England’s authority in the Northern Hemisphere. Throughout this tournament he will be noting which of his players likes the pressure and his deliberate raising of the ante. And who doesn’t. As head coach, you have huge potential to cause mischief in more subtle ways than you can imagine. For example, if England go well under Eddie and the Grand Slams start flowing, you can be pretty sure that none of the other coaches will be telling us how wonderful Eddie is. Winners don’t get praise and backslaps from the opposition.
But if England start to wobble and a few mistakes creep in, there will be plenty of comments about what an exceptional coach he is; what great respect there is for him and how time is always needed to turn a team around.
If you read between the lines, having a pop at an opponent is usually a mark of respect while talking them up is often a sign they do not want the status quo to change.
I hope the Twickenham crowd follow Eddie’s lead. Stop all the niceties. Stop the Twitter messages on the big screen, the stagemanaged car park walk, all that smoke and mirrors culture stuff. Twickenham must become a place that teams fear. There should be no comfort for the opposition. It must become a fortress again.
England to win by 15 points.
‘Jones knows exactly what he’s doing in war of words’