WE’LL BE BRUTAL
Jones promises to give French rookies fierce baptism of fire
EDDIE JONES yesterday ignited the build- up to Sunday’s Six Nations opener in Paris by warning France that England will mercilessly target their rookies.
Jones has played similar mind games before in an attempt to unsettle opponents with fresh faces in their ranks. Two years ago, Jones publicly called out Rhys Patchell before Wales visited Twickenham, questioning whether his nerve would hold in such a hostile environment.
This time there were no names, just a blunt declaration that England would seek to exploit the novices in the French squad.
New France coach Fabien Galthie has brought in a host of newcomers as he plans for the home World Cup in 2023. The oldest fly-half he has included is 21-year-old Matthieu Jalibert and first- choice scrum-half Antoine Dupont is just 23.
Speaking at England’s training camp here in the Algarve, Jones issued a warning with a menacing tone, saying: ‘It’s a young French team who’ve won the Under 20s and are building towards the World Cup in 2023.
‘ Test match rugby requires experience but France have gone with the youth. They might be wrong, they might be right, but it is going to test those young players because they will have never played against a brutal physicality and intensity that we are going to play with on Sunday.’
Jones is adamant that nothing the French tyros have encountered before will prepare them for the onslaught England intend to inflict on them at the Stade de France, adding: ‘You don’t get that in domestic rugby. You don’t get that in Under 20s competitions, so at stages they are going to be looking at each other, wanting to know where the answers are going to come from. They don’t have the experienced players to call on to say, “What do you do?” and that is going to be our intent.
‘We are always targeting individuals. That is what the game is about — finding the weak links in their team and trying to get an advantage. We are always looking for a weak link, we want to target them and make their life uncomfortable.’
It was evident yesterday that the emphasis has shifted within the England set-up. They are looking ahead to their championship opener, having drawn a line under the World Cup final, which they lost 32-12 to South Africa in November.
An internal debrief took place in Portugal last week and Jones expressed his satisfaction with the honest assessments of what went wrong. However, when asked if the players would carry any baggage from that episode into the Six Nations, he said: ‘You never know. But we’ve dealt with the issues and we’re moving on.’
When the head coach named his Six Nations squad last week, he announced a desire for England to become the greatest team in the history of the sport. It was a clear attempt to galvanise his players with the sense of a new project and raised ambitions. But yesterday, Jones spoke about the danger of failing to live up to recent standards.
‘World Cup finalists have generally deteriorated over the next four years and they’ve finished the next World Cup in the quarterfinals,’ he said. ‘They’ve gone from a top-two team to a topeight team in four years. Why? There are a number of issues.
‘The expectation gets higher and the team doesn’t cope with that. Also, because they made the final, they think they are going OK whereas every other team that hasn’t made the final is forensic in looking at where they can improve. And players might become comfortable. The fact that it’s happened for the last 16 years shows you how difficult it is to stay at the top.’
France will be hell- bent on knocking England down from their perch as the best European team at the World Cup — aided by the Englishman in their new management team. When asked if he had ever tried to hire Shaun Edwards, Jones said: ‘He’s an outstanding coach, but he hasn’t been an option for us. He has gone from Wales to France. If he was an option, we definitely would have considered him.’
France yesterday ruled out hooker Camille Chat because of a calf injury. He will be replaced by uncapped Racing 92 team-mate Teddy Baubigny.