Schofield in The Telegraph expressing what all fans are feeling….
Decoding the words of Eddie Jones: From a suspicious exchange with a barista to disowning his own book
Eddie Jones began Thursday’s press conference recounting a suspicious exchange with a local barista and ended it by disowning his own book.
As Andy Farrell commented, the England head coach’s comments provide a rich seam of entertainment. “I love reading them,” the Ireland head coach said. “It is great for the game.”
Unravelling Jones’ contradictions, however, is a far harder exercise.
“I went to the coffee shop yesterday and the girl says, ‘That Irish team must be good, all their ex-players think they’re going to win the game and all the ex-England players think they’re going to win the game. They must be a pretty good team. How you feeling?’ I said. 'Just give me the coffee please'.”
All that was missing from this yarn was, “And then everyone in the coffee shop cheered”.
According to Jones, everyone from the media, the bookmakers, every past Ireland international and even the baristas of Bagshot have written England off. This is classic Eddie, who you feel must have been reincarnated from a medieval knight such is his propensity to creating a siege mentality.
Jones has deployed much the same rhetorical devices - “chasing Ireland down the street” - as he did in the build-up to the 2019 semi-final against New Zealand. Clearly he feels that England can only perform at their best when their backs are placed firmly against the wall. “My job is to put our team in the best mindset it can be for the game,” Jones said. “That’s my job.”
Is this a successful tactic? On the one hand, everyone is focusing their attention on Jones rather than the players. On the other, Scotland were also “red-hot favourites” against England in the opening round (when they most certainly were not) and duly won anyway. Players such as Joe Marler and Maro Itoje seemed nonplussed to be informed they were underdogs (which they officially are), but there is no mistaking the stakes of this weekend’s match. Not only are both teams’ title hopes on the line but so too is the credibility of Jones’ ‘New England’ project.
Speaking of which.
"It's not a linear progression. There are little ups and downs. Particularly when you have got a young team like ours - a young nine, 10 and 15.”
That combination of Harry Randall, Marcus Smith and Freddie Steward has 20 caps. Johnny Sexton, the Ireland fly-half, has 103 by himself. You understand Jones’ point, but it is one he labours at every opportunity and England are hardly short of experience elsewhere. Their squad’s cumulative total of 924 caps is second to only Ireland’s 990 among this weekend’s Six Nations teams. And if that 9-10-15 feels inexperienced it is because the half-backs especially should have been blooded earlier.
As for linear progression, most England supporters are broadly patient, but two defeats in the next two games would signal a definite regression.
“As we’ve spoken about, they (Ireland) are a very cohesive team. 80 per cent of the team train for 11 months of the year.”
Cohesion has been the buzzword of choice for Jones this week, pointing enviously towards the ready-made Leinster combinations that Farrell can plug into his Ireland team.
But cohesion is not simply a luxury available to countries with five or fewer professional clubs. It can be built upon continuity of selection. Yet in the midfield - the combination that probably needs the most cohesion of any on the pitch - Jones has changed his 10-12-13 partnership for the 11th consecutive game with Joe Marchant replacing Elliot Daly at outside centre.
Some of that chopping and changing is down to availability, notably the absences of Owen Farrell and Manu Tuilagi, but it is also partly a matter of Jones’ choice. So far Marchant’s Championship has gone wing, centre, dropped, recalled to the bench (after Tuilagi’s hamstring flared up) and now back to centre. Is it any wonder that England’s attack has looked such a dog’s dinner at times?
As Martin Gleeson, England’s attack coach, pointed out this week, players need time to adjust to each other’s little idiosyncrasies such as Smith’s goosestep. How can they grow that understanding if they are constantly adapting to new partners?
“I’ll give you one tip. Never believe what’s written. You don’t even know if I wrote that book, someone else could have written that book.”
In the most bizarre exchange, Jones was asked whether he has conducted a pre-mortem. This is an exercise he details in his book, Leadership, published last year when he asked players to anticipate the gruesome headlines that would accompany a heavy defeat. Here he apparently disowned those remarks and appeared to suggest he had no hand in the book’s contents, which will be wonderful news for the publishers who paid him such a handsome advance.
Always a Wasp
