Mulish thinking puts recovering captain back in frame for Murrayfield even if England got on just fine without himIt has been 10 years since Owen Farrell played his first Test for England, against Scotland at Murrayfield back at the start of the 2012 Six Nations. By the dog years in which rugby players measure their Test careers, that’s a lifetime or so ago. Ben Youngs is the only other player from that match who is still playing international rugby. Most of the rest moved on a long time ago, into second careers in or outside the sport. Farrell, 20, fresh faced and whippet thin, played at inside-centre that day. The Scottish fans booed him all game. It didn’t make any...
The head coach has rung the changes again for his Six Nations squad but if another poor performance follows then questions will have to be asked of his selection methodsThere has been much talk in Downing Street circles this week of “Operation Red Meat”, which apparently involves lobbing juicy policy initiatives at Tory backbenchers to distract them from recent events. With Eddie Jones it is slightly different: “Operation Dead Meat” seems to be the subtext of most of his England squad announcements these days.The selection door, we are constantly informed, is never closed. Admittedly, Jamie George was recalled from squad oblivion in November and Jack Nowell has resurfaced after three years of injury-hit Six Nations exile. But try telling George...
England’s bullish head coach has dipped into his pick ‘n’ mix in a bid to handle the world champions’ heavy-duty forward packMuch has changed since Eddie Jones last named a team to face South Africa. Back in 2019 he was in a packed hotel ballroom in Tokyo awaiting a Rugby World Cup final that, ultimately, did not remotely pan out the way he planned. Two Covid-disrupted years on he is stuck on Zoom and admits he still awakes in the morning reflecting on the Springboks’ convincing 32-12 triumph in Japan.Which is perhaps why, before Saturday’s Twickenham Test, Jones chose to lay down as bullish a pre-match challenge to an opposing side as he has for some time. “Post the World...
The coach has named a strong, pacy side to take on his native country but can he get Owen Farrell and Marcus Smith to gel?If there is one nation Eddie Jones hugely enjoys pitting his wits against it is his native Australia. There are good reasons why England have beaten the Wallabies seven times in succession since 2016 and high on the list is Jones’s instinctive grasp, both psychologically and selectorially, of which specific buttons to push.Not only does he understand exactly how the Aussies feel when they catch a glimpse of a white shirt but he also knows what they hate most about playing the Poms. Hence the announcement of an England side with Marcus Smith at No 10,...
Growing up feeling like an odd man out in the suburbs of Sydney has shaped the career path of England’s head coachEddie Jones has always felt like an outsider, and still does. “An Australian coaching in England rugby,” the England rugby head coach tells me in the latest episode of Life Lessons: From Sport and Beyond. “In Japan, half-Japanese – you’re an outsider.” Born in Tasmania to a Japanese-American mother and Australian father, as a boy he lived in La Perouse, a south-eastern Sydney suburb. There were around 30 children in his school class. “Twenty-six Anglo-Saxons, three aboriginal kids and myself.”Jones’s mother would make him take presents whenever he visited someone else’s house, a Japanese custom he found uncomfortable. “Other...