New England head coach Eddie Jones confirmed at Wednesday’s RBS 6 Nations launch that his team’s focus during the tournament would be to return the ‘fear factor’ to their set piece. The England scrum has traditionally been a weapon but it faltered badly at the World Cup, and Jones has his sights firmly set on rectifying that.
The Australian, getting his first taste of the Six Nations, went on to say that the tournament is the perfect place to hone England’s set piece skills, given that many games were typically arm-wrestles that lacked continuity.
“If you talk about what a championship stands for, the Six Nations is about contest,” said Jones. “It’s a contest at the set-piece, and it’s a contest at the breakdown. It’s never been a tournament known for its continuity, has it? Until the last day of last year when everyone threw their toys out and all of a sudden it was all about continuity.
“The reality is that the start of this Six Nations is going to be about contest. Contest is about set piece. We’ve got a lot of work to do in that area, but with the talent we’ve got we can get back that fear factor of England having a dominant set piece.”
Jones admitted that, after a World Cup that saw not a single side from the Northern Hemisphere reach the semi-finals, the Six Nations teams had some work to do to catch their rivals south of the equator.
“At the moment the Southern Hemisphere teams are 3-5% better than the Northern Hemisphere teams,” said the former Japan coach. “That can change in eight weeks. You can turn that around.”
The new England coach confirmed that for the Scotland game, he chose to mostly pick players that have experience of the international arena, explaining that there is a huge difference between doing the business for your club side to doing so for your country.
“The difference between being a good club player and an international player is about 3-5 per cent. Improving by 3-5 per cent is hard work. It takes application and sacrifice. Those young players are enormously talented, but they have got to work hard and keep learning. I am pretty confident that they will.
“Some players have had a disappointment,” Jones added. “How they take that disappointment and how they turn it into improving their game is the key thing I want to see.”
One player that bucked this trend was Bath centre Ollie Devoto, who has neither experience of the international arena nor a good run of form in his club shirt as he enters the Six Nations squad. Jones claimed that this was outside his control but went on to extol Devoto’s virtues as a player.
“I don’t pick the Bath side,” he said witheringly. “He’s a big, tall guy with athletic ability. He’s got a fantastic left-foot kick, he can carry the ball through the line and fits in with our side at the moment.”
As for the more experienced members of his side, the new coach was full of praise for ex-captain Chris Robshaw, whom he claimed was experiencing a new lease of life as a bona fide blindside flanker.
“He’s learning his new role and he’s doing that very well,” said Jones of the Harlequins flanker. “I think he can finish the series as the leading blindside flanker in Europe and that’s his target.”
By Jamie Hosie
Follow Jamie on Twitter: @jhosie43
Photo by: Patrick Khachfe / Onside Images
2 replies on “Eddie Jones: England’s focus is on set piece, not continuity”
He likes his 3-5% increments doesn’t he? I reckon the biggest one where he’s inaccurate is the difference between northern and southern hemisphere rugby – the gulf at the moment is far wider than that. I’m not sure how either of us is coming up with the actual numbers but I would suggest about 10-15% would be closer to the truth.
I thought that the game as a whole was a contest. Not just the set piece, but also & esp, the breakdown, which is surely crucial. Win the breakdown & a team likely wins the match. Slows oppo, speeds up own ball. In fairness though, EJ seems to acknowledge the latter’s importance.. @ least to an extent.
Also this 3-5% stuff is surely ‘feel good’ stuff. The N-S gap is not only in speed of thought & skill levels, but also in the innovation & foresight of how the game can be played. For instance, having the 1st & 2nd rows running & passing like 3/4ers, instead of, as still too often IMO, just bashing into contact.
And agree ‘that there is a huge difference between doing the business for your club side to doing so for your country’. A disadvantage in the NH club structure is that the SH have Prov & S15 levels to step up in skill & pace for their game.
Interesting to see how it pans out on Sat however. Cotter’s Scots will likely try to run England around the park, whilst the latter will probably wear the former down up front & bash through… to win it eventually? And is Farrell really going to play @ inside centre? Out of posi, in a test match? If so, does it make sense? Haven’t we been here before fairly recently?
It may all work up here, but I wouldn’t bet my pint on it doing so in June.
This future tour ought to be borne in mind @ the same time as merely trying to win the nxt match methinks.