Mind coach on the way to sort out flops’ mental frailty

EDDIE JONES plans to recruit a sports psychologist to tackle the recurring mental frailty which is threatening to derail England’s World Cup ambitions. Coach Jones revealed after Saturday’s extraordinary 38-38 draw with Scotland at Twickenham — in which the hosts threw away a 31-0 lead — that he is ready to hire a mind coach as a priority. England already use the services of ex-England rugby league player and motivational speaker Mark Edmondson but Jones wants to bring in another specialist. His side have failed to press home an advantage in four Tests over the last year and the Australian has decided it is time to take action. Scotland were allowed to fight back from a seemingly hopeless position, scoring six unanswered tries, and Jones said the problem lies in the ‘top two inches’. ‘It’s about working on the way we think,’ he said after the Guinness Six Nations finale. ‘We have people working with us. We have Mark Edmondson. But I’m talking about a different area now. It’s about how the team think under pressure.’ Asked to elaborate, Jones added: ‘Well, it’s a combination of personnel, but I’ve got one person who’s going to help us who’s a bit of an expert. I’m not sharing that name now. I haven’t used her before.’ Jones sought to sum up the mental shortcomings which England must try to overcome in the six months before the World Cup in Japan. ‘It’s like we have some hand grenades in the back of a jeep, and sometimes they go off when there’s a lot of pressure,’ he said. ‘It’s a bit of an intangible issue, but when you coach a team you can feel if it’s there or not.’ Jones praised ‘remarkable’ 20-year-old flanker Tom Curry and remains bullish about his team’s prospects in the Far East. He added: ‘If we can get some consistency in the way we think on the field and that toughness and discipline about doing the right thing, we’ve got a team capable of winning the World Cup.’