EDDIE’S FATE IS SEALED
Jones met the US Navy Seals who took down Bin Laden to help him prepare his men for rugby battle
EDDIE JONES has turned to the US Navy Seals who took down Osama Bin Laden for tips on making his England team more streetwise.
A year out from the World Cup, Jones flew to San Diego on a fact-finding mission aimed at better preparing England to challenge for rugby’s biggest prize.
Over two days he developed an understanding of how to help his players to cope with the unexpected in the heat of sporting battle.
“You know the Osama thing,” he said. “They practised that project for 12 months for 38 minutes of work – and the first thing they did was wrong. The helicopter hit the wall of the compound.
“They had 12 months to prepare, went through it religiously and they still get something wrong – but they were able to cope with it and get it done within 38 minutes.
“We have 12 months to the World Cup, preparing for a game that has 35 minutes ball-in-play. The ability to dress-rehearse, prepare players for what’s coming up, is the opportunity now.”
Jones begins that process this weekend with a threeday training camp at Twickenham and has named a 36-man squad featuring recalls for Manu Tuilagi, Sam Simmonds and Ben Youngs.
Danny Care, Kyle Sinckler, Harry Randall and Joe Marchant are among those to miss out, as is captain Courtney Lawes who joins Maro Itoje, Sam Underhill, Alex Dombrandt and Anthony Watson on the injury list.
Jones is confident he will have a full deck to choose from for England’s autumn Tests against Argentina (Nov 6), Japan (Nov 12), New Zealand (Nov 19) and South Africa (Nov 26).
Of greater concern to him is that the group who carry English hopes into the World Cup in France is as prepared as possible to think for itself under fire. Jones added: “Probably 25 percent of the game now is uncontrollable, through sin-bins, head injury assessments and uneven numbers. The match becomes different.
“We need to be able to adapt from our game to the game that’s going to be played in that time. That’s hard to do – I can’t name one team who can do it.
“We basically can’t get messages on the field any more so the players have become even more important in terms of decision making.”
FORMER England boss Stuart Lancaster will leave Leinster next summer to become director of rugby at French giants Racing 92.