Two games into his tenure as coach of the world’s richest union, the Australian summed up the atmosphere as his team prepares to host Ireland in a key Six Nations match in London this weekend.
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It is Jones’ first home match after away wins over Scotland and Italy.
Eddie Jones, the astute and often brutal Australian work horse coach has recently said to the press that England possess no players that fall into the World Class category – a sentiment then echoed by Dan Cole.
“Because of the history that is involved and the surrounding countries, with the social and historical context and that long-seated rivalry there is a hatred of England and you can feel that”. A contributory factor may be that attack is his specialist area but he wants the backline to play much flatter and says it will take time for that to become ingrained. It’s what we do out on the field during the week that will count.
Jones’s predecessor Stuart Lancaster went to extreme lengths to present Englishness – and English rugby – in a more rosy light but the new managerial regime has yet to decide whether to stick to some of the modern matchday rituals, such as players disembarking from the team bus and walking to the dressing room through a patriotic human tunnel of fans. It has been hugely frustrating to miss out on points difference [to them] – it is tough to take and you remember those emotions. I only talk them to about things I do understand. They will be fully confident they can get a victory against us.
Ireland could field a maximum of eight players who have previously tasted victory at Twickenham in Saturday’s RBS 6 Nations clash. “It was always a hard place to play and win at”.
“I have never won there and there are a lot of players in the squad who have never won there but we have come close. You felt the intensity of the crowd support and it was always bleak and miserable”, Jones said. “But it’s going to be handsome and sunny on Saturday in our minds”.
If England opt for a five-three split between forwards and backs on the bench, Burrell will compete with Sam Hill and Elliot Daly for a spot among the 23.
“I was interested to read yesterday that we are a disappointment because we haven’t played any expansive rugby. We’ve been together four weeks”, Jones said. “There must be some magic dust out there; I need to buy some”.
“I think we’re going in the right direction”.
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“We’ve had our moments and the way we’ve played over the last couple of years, we’ve had some fantastic results, but we’ve also had some bad ones”, the 29-year-old said.
