Eddie Jones has never been shy of voicing an opinion and the Australian was at it again ahead of his home debut as England coach, against Ireland in the Six Nations at Twickenham on Saturday.
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Jones has heightened tensions between the rival camps by expressing his alarm at the “whiplash injury” sustained by Sexton during the 10-9 defeat by France in the previous round of the RBS 6 Nations.
“I think there are some good young players coming through who are going to break the mould of English rugby”.
Meanwhile Eddie Jones has said he is eager to have Manu Tuilagi play a role in England’s Six Nations match with Wales on March 12.
Robshaw’s place in the team was in jeopardy after Lancaster stepped down, but Jones has his retained the Harlequins flanker and given him a new role at blindside flanker.
Meanwhile Ireland wing Andrew Trimble said Sexton was too experienced to be fazed by Jones’s comments.
Ireland scrum coach Greg Feek insisted England will gain short shrift in targeting one of the side’s most committed and gritty defenders in any case. You might think that the Scots’ supremacy with the bookies at 1.40 is misplaced then, with Italy back at 3.25. “Every time we have a session I see improvements; I see the players working diligently on their skills; I see the back rowers at the end of training today working on their breakdown skills; the kickers did extra kicking at the end of the session, and they are developing”. I only talk them to about things I do understand.
It’s been 13 games since fewer than 30 points were scored in an England Test at Twickenham – ironically the last occurrence was against Ireland in 2014.
Sharks club-mates Tamara Taylor, Heather Kerr and Ruth Laybourn are all on the bench, England lead coach Scott Bemand saying: “We have had the time to come together since Italy and work on our game”. I think to have trained with, he’s just a player that’s very easy to train with because you know that if you ask him to do something, he’ll do it. Hang on, hang on he’s got a red dot on his head, we don’t run at him.
“You go back to the (former New Zealand coach) Graham Henry situation when Tana Umaga was All Blacks captain”.
“People are within their rights to make whatever observation they like from outside the environment, but we know how things are inside the environment”.
“Rugby’s a game of 15 players on the field”. There were areas where things went well, but there were also things which we will need to improve.
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“Everything else apart from the rugby is a sideshow that we don’t want to get involved in”, the hooker added at Twickenham on Friday. England will be concerned about this if George Ford is caught in the backfield, and while Mike Brown is very strong in the air, neither Anthony Watson nor Jack Nowell, though competent enough, is renowned for his aerial skills.
