Jones hints at unleashing monster 38-stone centre partnership
England headcoach Eddie Jones has hinted at unleashing a super-sized centre partnership as he debuted his latest position swapping theory to reporters.
The suggestion comes after the outstanding performance of England’s Pacific island contingent against Ireland.
Driving England on in the finest performance of Jones’ 36 Tests at the helm was the return from injury of the rampaging Vunipola brothers, Billy and Mako, and centre Manu Tuilagi.
All three are of Pacific island descent and their power in the carry overwhelmed Joe Schmidt’s Grand Slam holders. Most effective of all was the unstoppable Mako Vunipola, who was named man of the match.
“We had a few top players out there – they all seem to come from one part of the world, so we shopped pretty well. We definitely went to Waitrose and not Lidl!” Jones said.
“I’d like to get Billy fit enough to play at inside centre. Imagine him at 12 and Manu at 13!
“What Mako Vunipola did….he’s 125 kilograms so that’s a big guy, big enough to be a sumo wrestler.
“He’s making 23 tackles, carrying the ball 10 times, he’s scrummaging and lifting in the line-out.
“The intensity in the game is such now that you’ve got to work out when you’re going to peak and when you want to take it off a bit.
“But now we have that ability to dent the line and that creates space, which makes it a far easier game to play. When you have to fiddle around to dent the line it’s much harder.”
Other pleasing aspects of the game were Owen Farrell’s composure as captain and the work-rate of wings Jonny May and Jack Nowell, while the 2019 Six Nations could yet emerge as the turning point in Henry Slade’s career.
A player of vast talent, he has shown only flashes of his class in 17 previous Test appearances, but his two-try haul in Dublin was tangible reward for an outstanding afternoon.
“You build players mentally by picking them because then they know you love them and we’ve done that with him,” Jones said,
“Slade’s played eight of our last nine Tests at outside centre for us, so he knows I love him and that helps.
“He’s a guy that maybe at first didn’t think he was good enough for England and now he’s thinking about how good he can be.”
Elsewhere Jones insists England have the resources to cover for the loss of Maro Itoje.
Itoje suffered suspected knee ligament damage in the 54th minute of Saturday’s remarkable 32-20 victory over Ireland in Dublin with referee Jerome Garces, who could be heard over the ref mic, initially fearing he had broken his leg.
A scan will reveal the extent of the damage with an update expected on Tuesday morning, but England will be praying that their British and Irish Lions talisman has escaped serious damage.
"I think the intensity in which we played!"
Eddie Jones was impressed with how his side went about their business in Dublin. #GuinnessSixNations pic.twitter.com/3p7L9xOSYs
— Guinness Men's Six Nations (@SixNationsRugby) February 3, 2019
Itoje was an integral part of a dominant pack performance until he limped off and is a player they dare not lose as the countdown to the World Cup continues.
Lessening any potential blow, however, is that England are well stocked for second rows with Wasps captain Joe Launchbury unable to even make the bench at the Aviva Stadium.
“Maro’s going to be the best lock in the world so it’s a big loss, but we’ve got good depth,” Jones said.
“We’ve got Joe Launchbury ready to come back in and you saw Courtney Lawes come off the bench for us.
“We’ll have to fill his spot and guys will just have to work that bit harder to cover his gap for how long he is out for.”
Press Association Sport
Comments on RugbyPass
🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
27 Go to commentsJe suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
1 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusades , you can keep going.
1 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
27 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
27 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
27 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
27 Go to commentsHaving overseas possessions in 2024 is absurd. These Frenchies should have to give the New Caledonians their freedom.
21 Go to commentsBell injured his foot didn’t he? Bring Tupou in he’ll deliver when it counts. Agree mostly but I would switch in the Reds number 8 Harry Wilson for Swinton and move Rob Valentini to 6 instead. Wilson is a clever player who reads the play, you can’t outmuscle the AB’s and Springboks, if you have any chance it’s by playing clever. Same goes for Paisami, he’s a little guy who doesn’t really trouble the likes of De Allende and Jordie Barrett. I’d rather play Carter Gordon at 12 and put Michael Lynagh’s boy at 10. That way you get a BMT type goalkicker at 10 and a playmaker at 12. Anyways, just my two cents as a Bok supporter.
14 Go to commentsThanks Brett, love your articles which are alway pertinent. It’s a difficult topic trying to have a panel adjudicating consistently penalties for red card issues. Many of the mitigating reasons raised are judged subjectively, hence the different outcomes. How to take away subjective opinions?
11 Go to comments