England’s head coach animates his art of distraction with comic jibes to blur fantasy and reality – and boost his team’s self-beliefIn Disneyland, where England are staying for this semi‑final week, they specialise in blurring the lines between fantasy and reality. Perhaps that is why Eddie Jones has based his squad in a hotel full of people dressed up as Mickey Mouse wannabes. If you are looking to dream big, this is not a bad place to start. Related: England’s training session spied on from a nearby apartment, says Eddie Jones Related: Hansen and Jones show respect – and confidence they can overcome | Gerard Meagher Continue reading...
New Zealand will have to be patient and not force things, waiting for the World Cup semi-final to become unstructuredIf there is one thing England must do if they are going to beat New Zealand and reach the World Cup final it is to deny them quick ball. Ireland were not able to do that in the first half and New Zealand had a field day. The game was in effect over by half-time because the All Blacks bossed the breakdown.I have 100% belief that England are capable of that. It is not entirely reliant on Tom Curry and Sam Underhill but judging by their performances against Australia they are more than able to deny New Zealand the kind of...
Brave Blossoms showed all their fight against South Africa and now need more games against the world’s bestSo long then, and thank you, Japan. Bruises fade, bones heal, tears dry, and even the pain of this will give way, in time, to resounding pride at everything this team have achieved in these last few weeks, and the four consecutive victories that came before this last defeat. Because whichever of the four sides left in this tournament go on to win it, this will be remembered as Japan’s World Cup. Not just because of the job they have done of hosting it but for the way their team, representing what is, in the large part, still an amateur league, lit up...
Youthful exuberance was at the heart of a new-look New Zealand’s stunning quarter-final win over their recent nemesesSympathy is rarely felt for a rival rugby nation yet it was impossible to suppress prangs of exactly that emotion for Ireland. The cruel, crushing nature of this seventh World Cup quarter-final exit has never been so severely inflicted. As the Ireland coach, Joe Schmidt, exclaimed, the scars of this defeat will remain for some time. There could be no more brutal way to sign off his tenure.While Ireland knew the All Blacks would respond after two defeats in their last three meetings, they were powerless to stop it. Four years ago it was a similar theme. The All Blacks arrived at the...
For all England’s skilful touches, it was Eddie Jones’s Kamikaze Kids who dominated Australia with 36 hard-hitting tacklesEddie Jones calls them his Kamikaze Kids, which fits – because the way Tom Curry and Sam Underhill play is right out of a comic book. You could picture it in Roy Lichtenstein prints. Pop! Pow! Whaam! Boom! They made 36 tackles between them against Australia, none better than the one Underhill put in on their strapping No 8 Isi Naisarani early in the first half, which was one of those blows that seem to reverse the entire flow of a game. It was in the 15th minute, or thereabouts, and Australia had made a hot start, thinking that they would catch England...