Any England player looking to ease himself into the season should look away now. Eddie Jones has warned major improvements and greater sacrifice will be required to overhaul New Zealand as the world’s No1 side and has pronounced himself largely unimpressed with much of the rugby played by his team during their unprecedented 3-0 series success in Australia in June.
Jones’s summer stint following cycling’s Tour de France, in particular, has convinced him English rugby still has ground to make up before it can rival the professionalism of certain other sports. He will expect his players to get fitter and is also challenging all involved to show a burning desire to represent their country between now and 30 September when he is set to name his 32-man squad for the autumn internationals.
The England coach’s time spent with the Orica cycling team certainly seems to have left a deep impression. “They cycle for nine days, have a day off, and then the players get together – not the coaches – and say: ‘Right, this is our recovery for tomorrow, we’re going to cycle for two hours in the mountains.’ It was horrendous – I got tired sitting in the car. They started in 35 degrees in Spain and ended up in Andorra in 10 degrees and pouring rain. They finish that, have a quick bite to eat – they’re staying in a three-star hotel, it’s not flash – and then they make the decision on what they’re going to do the next day. That’s being professional.”
Jones, accordingly, is even planning to install a new flight of steps at England’s training ground in Bagshot for his players to run up and down on a regular basis: less fancy gym-based science, more sweat is his autumn mantra.
Jones has also been impressed by Team GB’s women hockey players and has invited their coach, Danny Kerry, to address the England squad at their upcoming training camp. “His ability to create such a dynamic and hard-working team is fascinating, so we’ll learn a lot from him,” said Jones, speaking at the unveiling of Mitsubishi as the RFU’s performance sponsors. “We’re also going to visit judo in a couple of weeks and we’ve had conversations with cycling.” A large wrestling mat, furthermore, has been placed in England’s gym as Jones seeks to try to improve his players’ body angles and effectiveness at the breakdown.
From his long experience Jones estimates a 3% improvement in all areas is usually enough to transform a good team into an outstanding trophy-winning side and is determined everyone, coaches included, is dedicated to making that leap. “When I am watching the players playing for their clubs I want to see a desire to play for England. We’re looking for players who have that desire. I was not happy with our performance [in Australia] and the more I looked at it the less happy I was but I was really happy with our attitude in the third Test. Physically we had a number of players struggling with injury but mentally in that game we stayed strong.”
Jones singled out Billy Vunipola, as well as his brother Mako, as an example of a player making visible progress – and hopes England will have at least 15 representatives on the Lions tour to New Zealand next year. He is also keen for a couple of his coaching staff to sample the Lions experience on the basis that experience of British domestic rugby alone does not necessarily produce a fully-rounded world-class coach. He said: “If we want the team to play better then we’ve got to coach better,” he insisted.
“Our coaches, to a large extent, have been a product of the domestic game here. They need to be products of the international game, which is significantly different. We’ve got Frank Dick, the former British athletics head coach, helping the coaches in that respect and working individually with each of them. We’re taking this very seriously because by 2019 we’ve got to be the best coaching team the world.”
His autumn panel will not include his compatriot Glen Ella, who was recruited to help the backs temporarily in Australia. Jones has decided to re-assume that role himself as he seeks to explore ways of overhauling New Zealand as the world’s pre-eminent team between now and the 2019 Rugby World Cup. “We want to be the No1 team in the world. New Zealand are head of the pack but they have flaws in their game. They’re a bloody good side but they’re beatable. You’ve got to take on their weaknesses … and they’ve got significant weaknesses. I’m not going to share them with you now; in 2018 I will.”
