Eddie Jones on Cipriani, Ford, Mitchell, senior coaches & more

Eddie Jones’ training squad announcement day was a busy one as the head coach talked through the major discussion points arising from his 36-man training squad for a camp in Bristol.

England’s camp will be their last period of time together before the Australian announces his Quilter Internationals squad on Thursday 18 October. It’s valuable time in order to ‘put down some parameters’ and another focus will be to ‘implement a slightly different defence philosophy’ with John Mitchell arriving in role. 

With 12 months to go before Rugby World Cup 2019, Eddie Jones wants his England side to continue to evolve tactically, in all areas, so that teams won’t work them out. Another clearly stated aim is to be the side that can get the consistency of performances together to regularly beat the best in the world. This, Eddie Jones explained, when reflecting on South Africa’s 36-34 win over New Zealand in the Rugby Championship.  

“I think it's great for World Rugby. The All Blacks’ losses are quite cyclical. If you look at their batting average, they're batting 90 per cent so they lose one Test every year. Everyone's excited but they're still a great team. It was a great effort from South Africa. The thing that always strikes me – and I've been coaching 20 years – is how much the value of emotion is in our game. 

“South Africa are under the pump, the coach is going to get sacked, they go to Wellington and they can't win. They come out with this unbelievable defensive effort, New Zealand are just slightly off their game and they win. The test is: can you keep batting at that intensity?

“The interesting thing is that you’ve got New Zealand here [out in front] and then you’ve got a host of other countries here [behind them]. Then there’s this battle of who’s going to get the consistency to get up there and challenge, and that’s what we’re aiming for, to be that team. 

“South Africa have done it this year but can they sustain that, we’ve seen Australia do it last year, we’ve seen Ireland do it, so like any great team they’re [New Zealand] beatable - every team is beatable - but you’ve got to have consistency to be able to sustain that effort.”

Away from England’s aims and ambitions, one man’s name dominated the conversation on announcement day - Danny Cipriani.

The new Cherry and White was one of the 30 players that received phone calls from Eddie Jones on Wednesday telling them that they hadn’t made the cut and talking through feedback about their respective performances. England’s head coach decided to take two standoffs in camp so that they gained the maximum reps during a short camp, in Bristol one day will be commercial so training time is ‘around 70 minutes’ according to Eddie Jones.

“Ten is a very influential position. He’s the bus driver of the side and he’s the conductor of the side and if Danny is a better player than Owen and George he can certainly promote himself ahead of them.

“From what I’ve seen at the moment, he’s not in terms of the whole context of the team. But, certainly he’s a good player and he’s done some good things but there’s areas of his game that he needs to attend to and I’ve spoken to him about that. He understands it, his club understands it and they’re going to work very hard to fix those areas.”

Eddie Jones doesn’t share particulars about feedback due to those conversations being confidential between him and his players. Cipriani’s specifics weren’t discussed however the head coach did discuss elements that he looks at, in more general terms, from a fly-half.

“A Test match game of rugby now is 100 minutes. The ball is in play 40 minutes. So if you are a No. 10 you might touch the ball 15 times for one second. So you’ve only got the ball in hand for 15 seconds so what you do the other 39 minutes 45 seconds is vital and you don’t see that on television. What you do off the ball is massively influential in the game.”

When analysing the form of one of the fly-halves included, George Ford, England’s head coach was pleased with what he’s seen to date.

“He’s got back to being what he’s good at and that’s taking the ball square and flat, attacking the line, looking for opportunities. 

“To me, it’s interesting… I go and watch three club games a week and being at the game some of the quality of his [George Ford’s] play is absolutely outstanding. But, it’s like he’s an invisible man. Whereas one other player throws one pass and he’s super man!”

It’s been a busy time of late around the England set-up and the most recent announcement, prior to the squad, was John Mitchell’s appointment into the coaching team. The former New Zealand head coach was formally announced as England’s defence coach earlier in the week however Eddie Jones spoke about him being a ‘senior coach’ within the national set-up.

“If you look at the last three World Cups, how many senior coaches has each team had that’s won them? 2007, 2011, 2015 all had two senior coaches and I think it’s vital for the World Cup so I’ve always had the plan to find the right person and some circumstances you can control and some circumstances you don’t. 

“Guzzy got a promotion and left, that wasn’t planned but we’re very happy for him - he’s probably not that happy at the moment though [after Quins' loss at the weekend] - and John, who I’ve known for 20 years, I’ve coached against John since 2000 when he took over Waikato, and I know that every time I coach against a team that he’s coached he’s improved that team immeasurably, so it was almost a bit of a no-brainer for me. 

“You’ve got a bloke who’s got international experience who every team he goes to he improves, to have him on the coaching staff is fantastic. He’s a strong guy too, an opinionated guy and we need that in the coaching box.”

England’s coaches will have 36 players to work with in Bristol and have another 30 waiting in the wings. The competition for places is hotting up and the early signs are that the quality of rugby played in the Gallagher Premiership is soaring. It’s just as well too because with South Africa, New Zealand, Japan and Australia on the horizon, and Rugby World Cup 2019 hurtling around the corner at breakneck speed, the time is now for England to press on and deliver. 

Gallagher Premiership Thoughts: Three rounds and buckets of tries

After just three Premiership rounds there has been a record 1001 points and 116 tries scored. The previous bests, at this point, were 931 points in 1998 and 102 tries last year. 

With the weather playing ball, and the players too, it's been a scintillating start to the new season even if people that operate with their glasses half full will say that the records have come due to poor defensive work across the board. 

Now, as you all know I'm not a glass half full kind of person... instead I take the perspective that it's great to see teams going for it on the front foot. We need to embrace these rounds wholeheartedly because when the dark nights arrive and the weather turns we will have some slugfests! 

On Thursday Eddie Jones names a training squad for a camp that will be taking place in Bristol and we'll all have a chance to hear his thoughts about the early-season rugby. I'll be bringing them to you here at Out On The Full but for now, let's take a look at a few talking points from the first 18 matches of the new Premiership season. 

First, let's turn our attentions on Joe Cokanasiga. The 20-year-old's move from London Irish to Bath was hotly anticipated by those with blue, black and white running through their veins and so far he's not disappointed. The manner in which he touched down his first try against Harlequins showcased his athletic abilities and power. It was a finish that few could deliver, though the man on Bath's other wing would fancy himself to score it, and his 151 metres highlighted the extent of his work rate. Cokanasiga has shown in the first three rounds that he's a winger that's hungry for work and one that wants to get involved in the action. He doesn't hang out on the wing and hope for play to come to him, instead he comes in and looks to make things happen. As Bath's collective confidence rises Cokanasiga's influence should increase further and the young man will put himself firmly on England's radar once again. 

In Round 3, for the second week in a row, George Ford took it upon himself to lead the way for Leicester Tigers and had another outstanding performance at the Ricoh Arena. He created three of their four tries due to his vision and exceptional ability to make the right choice at the line. The fly-half goes flatter to the line than some in his position will ever dare to and, with defenders rushing onto him, sees everything around him and nine times out of ten makes the correct decisions. His 15 points off the tee went a long way towards Leicester almost pinching a gutsy 14-man victory away from home and the 25-year-old is at the heart of their productivity. 

Now, let's discuss Exeter Chiefs' start to the new season. Three matches and three bonus-points wins... that's pretty tidy as they'd say in Wales! Rob Baxter is a man that always talks a great deal of sense and, as always, it was a pleasure to speak to him at the Gallagher Premiership season launch. The Director of Rugby was clear that he wanted his side to carry all of the positive aspects from last season into this one and build on them. He was very clear about the fact that the Chiefs didn't need to fall into the trap of trying to change too drastically. 

Instead, the Director of Rugby was keen to remind his squad that they were starting their new term off the back of a highly productive 2017/18 campaign. Despite losing the final they finished top of the tree at the end of 22 rounds and collected more points than they'd done before to secure that position. The side won their semi-final more convincingly than they had done before but just fell short in the big dance. 

Already this season the Chiefs setting the height of the bar for others to reach, along with Saracens. They are the ultimate team, they compliment each other and are as tight as they come as a group (coaches and players together). Of course individuals like Henry Slade, Don Armand and Sam Simmonds can be singled out but it's the collective that makes Exeter such a force. It's not too much to say that they're an early shoe-in for another crack at the title come May 2019 and it will take some stopping them in that match if they progress on from their early-season level. 

The earliest of new season changes

As I was charging across the concourse at London Waterloo this evening after a day of meetings and a spot of training at BBC Broadcasting House (yes I did get stuck in the office due to the bomb disposal unit’s work on an suspicious vehicle) I saw a notification arrive on my iPhone highlighting the fact that Matt O’Connor and Leicester Tigers have parted ways.

‘Goodness’ was my first reaction. Now, I’m not naive to the fact that Leicester’s round one performance was far below the standard that they would have wanted or expected. But, I didn’t expect to see such an announcement quite so early in the season. I, like most people I guess, thought that the management structure would remain in place for a number of rounds yet. If things didn't change then calls for a shift would have grown and if things weren't rosy leading into the season, then you'd have expected changes to have been made over the summer. No?

Of course all of us are not privy to the inner workings at the club. Our positions outside of it mean that while opinions may be cast, only those within the four walls of the Tigers know about the climate and the intricacies of the outfit. I’m always conscious of that fact and yes, it may sound like I’m shirking away from giving a forthright opinion, but my perspective on this stems from my time as an athlete. In the teams and set-ups that I was involved in, there was always more detail to decisions than those outside of the bubble were aware of. As a result this makes me conscious of casting assertions without intricate knowledge of environments. 

The Tigers’ Round 2 meeting with Newcastle Falcons was already going to be an much talked about occasion, given the context of their Round 1 outing, and this news has just taken it up a level or five. With the match not being one of the televised games of the weekend I expect plenty will be tuning into BBC Radio Leicester or turning up at Welford Road to see the encounter for themselves. Will this news spark a performance from Leicester that is unrecognisable (in a good way) from the one that we saw in Round 1? Potentially yes, but that may have arrived anyway. 

Now of course, conversations will be had about a permanent replacement for Matt O'Connor and there's no doubt about the fact that Geordan Murphy will put his best foot forwards at turning his interim position into a permanent one. He knows the club inside out and back to front from his years as a player and he'll have learnt plenty more from his  time as a coach. The head coach role at Leicester Tigers is a coveted and prodigious one. The talent house in the squad is vast, their fans are ardant and knowledgable and Welford Road is an incredible place to call home. Jake White's name will fly across social media (in jest) and more serious candidates will be discussed at length. Now, it's a case of watch this space over the coming days and weeks.