Eddie Jones sends World Cup warning to England forward of Twickenham return
E
ddie Jones has sounded a warning shot to former employers England that the World Cup won’t be received by tactical kicking.
Jones might be again at Twickenham for the primary time since being sacked by England in December after seven years on the Red Rose helm, teaching the Barbarians in Sunday’s status conflict in opposition to the World XV.
The 63-year-old led England to the 2019 World Cup closing, however then oversaw their worst set of calendar yr outcomes since 2008, with simply 5 wins in 12 Tests.
Jones was changed by his former assistant coach Steve Borthwick in England’s prime job, with the nationwide facet going through a race in opposition to time to be prepared for the autumn’s World Cup underneath a brand new regime.
England slipped to a fourth-place end on the Six Nations in Borthwick’s first stint on the helm, and the ex-Leicester coach has admitted there’s a enormous quantity of labor forward to prep his facet for the World Cup.
Jones insisted he won’t lose focus by hoping for a World Cup revenge mission given his Australia facet might face England within the quarter-finals in France.
But the previous Saracens coach did supply some sage recommendation to Borthwick and all the opposite Test coaches: that attacking rugby would be the solely path to glory on the World Cup.
Borthwick insisted when he took over with England that he inherited a staff good at nothing – and Jones has conceded the brand new England boss was proper.
Asked for his tackle Borthwick’s evaluation, Jones replied: “It is true. We were trying to build a team to win the World Cup.
“I don’t believe you are going to be able to win the World Cup by just kicking. I don’t believe you can. I can be proven wrong. But I think with the grounds as they are, you are going to need to play more positive rugby.
“The conditions in France and the speed of the ruck ball will be crucial. I reckon the interesting thing watching South Africa in November is they started to play a lot more running from kick return and it opened up for their outside backs.
“I think that’s the trend of the game. You have to go quickly, you can’t just play slowly.”
Quade Cooper will line up alongside Wallabies team-mate Samu Kerevi at 10 and 12 for the Barbarians on Sunday, with Jones leaping on the probability handy his Australia facet an early World Cup leg-up.
Veteran fly-half Cooper is again match after a torn Achilles, and has a effective probability of now making Jones’ World Cup squad. Jones was Queensland Reds coach when Cooper made his Super Rugby breakthrough in 2006, and now the 35-year-old will work underneath his former membership boss at Test degree.
We’ve acquired to create a brand new staff, new model of play, a brand new approach of belonging to a staff.
“I look at Quade like Dan Carter, he is a different sort of player but just from the maturity point of view,” stated Jones.
“I last coached Quade when he was a young swashbuckling, loose-as-you-can-be No10 out of high school. Now he is mature, serious, he looks after his body like it’s a temple, with a good command of how he wants to play the game. It’s going to be interesting.”
Jones jumped straight right into a second stint as Australia coach after being sacked by England, returning to steer the Wallabies after steering his residence nation to the 2003 World Cup closing.
“I’m really looking forward to it, particularly the intensity of the time,” stated Jones. “We’ve got less than five months, I think 120 days until the first game against Georgia.
“We’ve got to create a new team, new style of play, a new way of belonging to a team. We’ve got to do that quickly. And this now is an extra week’s coaching for Quade and Samu, and it’s massive for them because they haven’t played much rugby, so just seeing if they can gel as players.
“They haven’t played a lot together so it’s a really good opportunity for those two to work together. It’s exciting the backline we could have, power and pace, it’s frightening.”