Jones impressed with England’s character following autumn internationals
The international season is done for another year, the roars of Twickenham have ceased and the party is over. But how has England coach Eddie Jones assessed the autumn?
Three wins from three for Jones’ England this Autumn. A rout of Tonga was expected, as was the edging-out of Australia, but the scalp of the mighty Springboks will have raised eyebrows across the rugby world.
With a depleted home side against the power and physicality of South Africa, there should only have been one winner. But when you think you’re down and out, there’s always something left to give, Jones suggested.
“The tank is never empty,” he said yesterday at his end of season review. “We got that summer tour squad together and you never really know how they’re going to gel.
“We got these guys together in summer and we did the same things we always do. There was this chemistry in the group and it just took off.”
This autumn mattered for Jones, the midpoint between the 2019 World Cup final and the beginning of the next one, in France in 2023. A woeful Six Nations, England’s joint worst ever, followed by an expectedly victorious summer series against the US and Canada left a lot to be desired.
“We set out at the start of autumn to create a new England, which revolved around changing the selection, bringing some young players in and being more aggressive about our attack as the game required.
“Whilst we’ve had good results, our performance is still at a level where there’s a lot of improvement in us.
“But the great thing is that we’ve got four campaigns before the World Cup in 2023 so the next Six Nations campaign is a great opportunity for us to keep improving.
“We’ve got a very good group of players who work very hard and work very well together, and they’re looking forward to the challenge of becoming even better at the next Six Nations.”
This season has seen 23 new caps for Eddie Jones, including Leicester Tigers hooker Nic Dolly, who was origionally lining up a gig at championship side Coventry, yet five Tigers games on he made his debut against the world champions in front of 80,000 people at Twickenham Stadium.
In the absence of the traditional leadership group, Northampton Saints’ Courtney Lawes was appointed captain, and his exceptional work rate, and two wins, this autumn, has left Jones with questions.
“We had all the best laid plans in place and we lost our captain and vice-captain during the series at various times. We had to rebuild the leadership team and we will continue to rebuild that to reflect the diversity of the team,” Jones continued.
When asked whether captain Owen Farrell would keep his role for the Six Nations, Jones said: “We’ll worry about that selection when the selection is up.” When pressed on whether Lawes could continue in the role, the England coach continued: “I think I just answered that question.”
Jones has made no secret of his hope to reform and reboot an England team who had fallen into a bad run of results at the beginning of the year, and eight months on few could deny they were watching the same team playing the same rugby. But in the level of change witnessed within a matter of months, what could happen in two years? After all, there’s only 654 days until the World Cup.