EDDIE TEXTS YOU AT 4AM, HE NEVER SLEEPS!
Make no mistake, eddie Jones will have been targeting this game for months.
Until now, all the talk in public has been about Tonga and the USa, but this week he will kick in and say: ‘Right boys, this is where the tournament starts.’
The management will have been getting game sequences cut up and analysed. Those not involved against the USa would have been able to watch every aspect of argentina’s games in fine detail.
england’s planning will have been meticulous. eddie will know exactly how he wants to play and who to select to execute this.
eddie’s coaching is attention to detail personified and, in my mind, his approach to the game is light years ahead of other regimes and Premiership clubs.
after a month of working with eddie, the senior players sat down together and said how they wish it had always been like this. Myself and others even felt we would have given up caps to have had more time with eddie.
What eddie has is authenticity. He does things his way. He doesn’t fold because the media or the clubs put pressure on him. Other coaches read things out of books and follow others’ examples. eddie will say that he’s had a lot of successes and a lot of failures and that’s what shapes him — not guidebooks, pundits or the all Blacks. If he fails, he will fail his way.
That’s what makes a good coach. know what you are good at, know what you need to work on and stick to your guns.
You can develop different styles, but I have seen coaches try to perform a U-turn on the way they want to play and lack the belief to execute it. It’s a bit like Theresa May trying to sell Brexit; something she staunchly opposed one minute, she had to promote the next. It was never going to work.
eddie’s work ethic is unparalleled, even legendary. Players would receive text messages at four or five in the morning. I’d see them when I was going for a pee in the middle of the night. Sometimes they’d be funny and sometimes it would just be ‘Mate, you’re looking slow’.
The man never sleeps. He wants to be the best and his players to be self-reliant. It’s not about the 5am-9pm, its about the 9pm5am. If he does ever sleep it’s under his desk.
Steve Borthwick works equally as hard as eddie. That’s why england have been so good — not just because of eddie, but because of a balanced team around him.
On the Lions tour, all the coaches would go to bed and ‘ Borthers’ would still be up planning for the midweek matches. He would be making sure the midweek lads were prepared for their games.
In england camps back in the day, physios or kitmen would work hard but there would be times when they stood around waiting and watching training.
With eddie, nobody is standing idle. It’s like a well choreographed dance during training. a whistle goes and everyone has a role. It’s like a West end theatre production with set changes every two minutes. God forbid someone marks out the wrong coned area or forgets the bibs. Things can go turbo.
This week I think he will tell the lads to go out for a meal and relax, because it’s a high-pressure game. You don’t need to overmotivate players at this level. If you can’t get yourself up for a massive World Cup clash against a very passionate and dangerous argentina side, then you ought to think about a career change. Maybe a postman or secondhand car salesman.
The players spent the last four years doing all the ground work for these matches and now it’s time for that to pay off.
Under eddie and his staff, there is no such thing as a casual walk-through. If you are doing something then you need to do it properly.
These standards took time to put in place. I still remember one particular run- through on a Monday just after the squad had got together. at Premiership clubs and other england camps these were done at a casual pace, which is fine, but when you have to execute something there are no half-measures.
kyle Sinckler carried the ball and was touched, so he placed the ball on the floor and stepped over it rugby league- style to create a ruck because of the muddy pitch. eddie shouted at ‘Borthers’ to stop the session and said: ‘What are you guys doing? That’s not our standards.’ He then made Sinckler do a proper placing in the mud so he was caked head to foot.
Having seen this, I was thinking: ‘Please don’t pass me the ball.’ However I quickly found myself on the receiving end of a pass, and not wanting to go down I tipped the ball to Garry Graham and shouted go down.
He dived head-first into the biggest puddle you have ever seen. In between tears of laughter, I apologised. I could see he was angry, or I thought I could see. I made things worse by doing it twice more to him. No wonder he went to play for Scotland!
I’m sure all the hard work will pay off and england should win by two tries but this will be their toughest challenge for a while and argentina’s attacking prowess cannot be underestimated.