On Tuesday Mitsubishi Motors in the UK were unveiled as the Official Performance Partner to England Rugby. The announcement afforded an opportunity to take a look around England Rugby’s training centre and touch base with head coach Eddie Jones.
The partnership with Mitsubishi Motors will support the game from the grassroots level all the way up to England’s elite squad and builds on their longstanding association with rugby having sponsored Gloucester Rugby for 10 years and Edinburgh Rugby for three.
England’s head coach was on good form, he himself has also become a brand ambassador for Mitsubishi, and during the course of the morning openly discussed a whole host of topics. In this Out On The Full article I’ll shed a bit of light on the 56-year-olds’ thoughts regarding South Africa, New Zealand and next year's British and Irish Lions tour.
South Africa
So far England Rugby’s development under Eddie Jones has been marked and already a number of people are talking about England finishing the calendar year unbeaten. Naturally Mr Jones’ focus is on their performances and building on the Test series in Australia. Interestingly he shared that the more that he has reviewed the performances in Australia the more displeased he’s become about them. That in itself says a lot about his standards considering that he’s analysing a victorious, and historic, 3-0 series.
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| England lost 28 – 31 last November at Twickenham Stadium |
When it comes their next challenge, South Africa, the head coach knows from first hand experience that the Springboks prepare differently to face England than other sides. They will have a meeting ‘mentality’ when it comes to facing England and lean heavily on the history between the two nations.
On the field of play he’s expecting Allister Coetzee's side to be "relentlessly physical and relentless up-front". He believes that this is a contest that England will delight in as opposed to shy away from, as may have previously been the case. England will not be bullied by South Africa and instead will meet then head on. Here he isn't paying lip service and saying what he should, we all know by now that Eddie Jones doesn’t do that. Instead the Australian believes England will confront South Africa head on and I agree with him. England haven’t been victorious since 2006 against the Springboks but under Eddie Jones history seems to change on a sixpence and arguably South Africa are a touch more vulnerable than they have been for a while right now.
New Zealand
One of the most common discussions to have at the minute, be that in a pub, on social media or simply amongst friends is debating just how good are New Zealand? They have won their last 43 games at home, seamlessly avoided any form of ‘transition period’ and look odds on to win this year’s Rugby Championship. That's an impressive run of facts and yet in Eddie Jones’ opinion "they’re bloody good but they are beatable".
As you’d expect England’s head coach kept his cards fairly close to his chest regarding how you approach beating the All Blacks but he believes that they do have "significant weaknesses" and that his England side will look to exploit them when it comes to the two sides meeting.
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| New Zealand have pressed on since their RWC2015 victory (C Paler Images) |
The hope is also that a number of his players will also have had experience against the back-to-back World Champions on the Lions tour and therefore can channel that knowledge when it comes to the English stage. Knowing your enemy is half of the battle because from knowledge comes power as players have the understanding of their opponents’ pressure points and can therefore exploit them. Yes we’re talking about the most 'complete' team in the world right now but Eddie Jones wouldn’t be in the top job if he didn’t have the knowledge, and experience, to unlock New Zealand. The next steps he demands from his players, in order to beat the World Champions, are clear;
“We've got to get fitter, there's no doubt about that. We're going in the right direction there. We've got to be better on our own ball, whether it's structured ball or unstructured ball, and converting that to points. We weren't bad in that area in Australia, we converted a lot of our pressure into points. But we've got to be better at that, and we've got to be better at closing down the opposition.”
Lions 2017
This season everything that occurs on a rugby field in England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales will have a Lions backdrop to it. If a player has a good run of form then automatically they will put themselves into Lions contention and any high profile injuries will immediately have a countdown clock to see if that individual can be fit to tour.
One area that will be of great interest towards this end of this calendar year will be Warren Gatland’s coaching appointments and the announcement is scheduled for 7th December. As England have risen to prominence naturally Eddie Jones’ assistant coaches have too. Steve Borthwick’s meticulous attention to detail and Paul Gustard’s ability to hone teams into well oiled defensive machines and get them excited about defence will have been noticed by Warren Gatland. Given the limited coaching time available to him and his team the Lions Head Coach may opt for more familiar faces for the trip to New Zealand but both Gustard and Borthwick have been given Eddie Jones’ blessing to head on tour should they be asked.
When it comes to England's head coach's expectations regarding the number of England players that might be making the 11 thousand mile journey to New Zealand he hopes for "at least 15 players and a couple of coaches on top of that". The fact of the matter is that this Lions tour has the potential to take a tremendously strong touring squads. You only need to think about selecting a Test lock pairing from those that are currently playing at International level to realise the competition and quality. Think about it pick two from Itoje, Kruis, Wyn Jones, Charteris, Henderson, Toner and the Gray brothers, I could go on with others also proven at Test level but I won’t because you get my drift!! This Lions tour will be horrendously difficult but it should be exceptionally exciting as well and Eddie Jones knows that the England players that do go will benefit greatly from it.
Overall England's head coach was in fine form ahead of the next challenge on his horizon, the Old Mutual Wealth autumn Internationals. Like all of us have done he described the start of the Premiership season as a 'mixed bag' and knows that it will improve over the coming weeks. He will announce a 45-man EPS squad on the 30th September and from that there will be 32 players that go into a three day camp at Brighton. It remains all systems go for Eddie Jones and personally I cannot wait to see his continued influence on the tremendous talent housed in the elite game in England.
Mitsubishi Motors are the Official Performance Partner to England Rugby and have introduced England Rugby head coach, Eddie Jones as a brand ambassador. Both partnerships will build towards the 2019 Rugby World Cup and will support the game from grassroots level up to the elite squad.
