England Jones' England already targeting one of their Six Nations rivals
Head coach Eddie Jones has warned England’s Six Nations rivals that his young team still has plenty of improvement to make after taking care of South Africa and Australia in their impressive Autumn Nations series.
Jones capped 23 players in 2021 and admitted some of those new caps had to be thrown into test rugby even though there were question marks over their ability to survive the ultimate challenge in the sport. However, the likes of Bevan Rodd, Raffi Quirke, Freddie Steward and Nic Dolly showed that English rugby is delivering youngsters with the skills to help drive England towards the 2023 Rugby World Cup in France.
Jones said: “We set out at the start of the Autumn to create a new England which revolved around changing the selection and bringing in some young players in and being more aggressive with our attack as the game required. Whilst we have had good results our performance is still at a level where there is a lot of improvement in us and the great thing is we have four campaigns before the World Cup in 2023 so the next one – the Six Nations – is a great opportunity for us to keep improving.
“We have very good group of players who work every well and hard together and they are looking forward to the challenge of becoming even better at the next Six Nations.
“Over the last two weeks we have beaten the third best team in the world and the best and have had our challenges in terms of Covid and a number of injuries where some young guys we thought weren’t ready to play at that level have been given that opportunity and acquitted themselves really well and so we have added to the depth and competition. We have also added to the hunger of the side which is really important because with the development of some of the younger players quicker than we thought puts enormous competitive strains on getting selected which is a good position to be in.
“The Six Nations is the next one and is another opportunity to improve and that is our focus. The game we are thinking about is the Scotland game and we will get back together in December. There are number of good young players and we have had 23 new caps this season and a lot of those players are going to have great careers in front of them -If they keep working hard and that hunger to get better .
“Nic Dolly was going back to play for Coventry, got a call up from Leicester and played four or five games for them find himself in the England squad and coming up against the best pack in the world in front of 82,000 people at Twickenham. What a story in terms of resilience and keep doing your work and taking the opportunity when it comes.”
Jones paid tribute to the impact former Wasps attack coach Martin Gleeson has had on the squad and expects this to become even more obvious in the Six Nations thanks to the continued emphasis by referees on helping deliver quick ruck ball.
He added: “The speed of ruck ball dictates how you can play rugby always, has and always will. You never really know when you bring a new coach in but Martin has been absolutely outstanding. His eye for detail and understanding of the game is first class and him and Anthony Seibold in that attack-defence area have made a really good impression on the team and will continue to add value as we go along.
“The way the players stuck to the game (against South Africa) was fantastic and in big test matches you sometimes have to win the game two or three times and we had to win that at least two times.
“In those sort of games you have to stay in the moment which we did very well and didn’t allow ourselves to get to flustered or frustrated by the welter of penalties going against us. You know that the game will come back to you if you hang in there long enough and they hung in there long enough. It doesn’t hide the fact there are areas of our game where we can consistently improve – around the set-piece, the breakdown is providing more challenges as the weeks go by and we need get better in that area.
“I was really happy with the attitude and the character which the team showed. “
Comments on RugbyPass
Why cant I watch Rugby games please?
1 Go to commentsBeautiful shot from Finau, end of story. Gutted for Shaun Stevenson though.
4 Go to commentsThe Chiefs definitely didn’t win ugly. They had the superior scrum, a dominant lineout, and their defence was excellent once the Waratahs scored their two tries (thanks to some lucky refereeing calls mind you). They put pressure on the Waratahs lineout throughout the game, and the mind boggles as to why the referee did not award a yellow card or a penalty try against the Waratahs for repeated scrum infringements on their own try line before Narawa’s first try. And the Chiefs were slick with their passing and running angles on attack. It was a dominant performance all round, even with many questionable refereeing decisions.
1 Go to commentsWasnt late. Ref 2 assistants andTMO all saw it so who are you to say it was?
4 Go to commentsAre the Brumbies playing the Blues twice in a row?
4 Go to commentsBig difference from the Saders. Forwards really muscled up and laid a solid platform. Scooter brought some steel and I liked the loosie combination. Newell has been rather disappointing this season but stepped up big time - happy also to see Franks dot down. He should do that more often! Reihana had a good game and there seems to be more flair and invention with him in the saddle. McNicoll plays well from the back and is reliable plus inventive when he joins the line. Keep it up chaps!
3 Go to comments🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
30 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
4 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 Crusaders , you can keep going.
3 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!😭😭😭 !!!
30 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
30 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.
30 Go to comments