Defiant Eddie Jones still believes England can be world’s best team
How else to reintroduce himself to his public? The last time Eddie Jones was seen he was ruing defeat in a World Cup final, denied, at the last, his stated aim of four years earlier to turn England into the best team in the world.
Since then English rugby has been consumed by just about the most spectacular scandal of its twisted history, erupting high into the firmament behind him, consuming seven of the squad he had just named and a further three of the squad he had taken to that World Cup final. Jones threw his arms wide, his grin even wider, and boldly proclaimed his latest aim: to turn England into The Greatest Rugby Team The World Has Ever Seen.
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As a diversionary tactic against discussing his Saracens problem, it was an amusing soundbite, one that he repeated six times across two press conferences. He has two years in which to achieve this latest stated aim and no World Cup, unless he chooses to stay on beyond the end of his current contract. He might also be assembling his Greatest Team from out of the Championship next season, or maybe from out of France, or even Japan. But now is not the time to be discussing any of that. For now all he is thinking about is France in Paris a week on Sunday, a less amusing soundbite resorted to with even more insistence (seven times).
When asked to elaborate he defined greatness as the ability of a team to dominate matches over a sustained period of time. Winning a World Cup helps but winning a grand slam is not necessary or demonstrative. “You can win grand slams without playing great rugby,” he said, “as you can a World Cup.” He dismissed England’s grand slam under him in 2016 as one example.
It is unclear whether his new line was premeditated. He did rather build up to it via a lamentation at England’s failure to achieve his previous aim in Japan, but once the line came out he could not stop himself. No doubt he feels emboldened by England’s performance in the semi-final victory over the All Blacks, which he described as touching the sort of greatness he is after.
If greatness is to be achieved in the next couple of years, he has assembled a fair group of youngsters for the assignment. The fact England could have even touched the heights with such a squad might highlight as much as anything the lack of greatness in the world game currently. Now England have become younger still, Dan Cole and Mark Wilson making way, Jack Nowell, Henry Slade and Billy Vunipola among those injured, a raft of youngsters called up.
Vunipola’s is the most notable absence. Jones has resisted the temptation to summon a hefty ball-carrier as a replacement. Ben Earl, the latest Saracens call-up, packs a punch in that department but it would be asking a lot to throw him in against France. Jones name-checked Tom Curry, England’s outstanding player at the World Cup, and Lewis Ludlam as the likeliest candidates for the No 8 berth. These days a balance of attributes across the back row is less of a consideration than a balance of them across the back five of the scrum. England made much of their selection of Curry and Sam Underhill at the World Cup, either side of Vunipola, and it seems as if Curry might now move across to the base, allowing one of the squad’s myriad locks with the athleticism to make such a switch to assume a role on the flank.
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Jones conceded it is further evidence of the interchangeability of players in the modern game, the lack of specialisms. He mooted once again the idea of Nowell playing as a flanker, citing the prowess of the fearsome Fijian Levani Botia at switching between the back row and the midfield.
But the grin left his face when he discussed modern refereeing. His claim that officials no longer enforce tackler release led him to speculate that the game will continue its evolution towards one of power and box-kicking at the expense of the running game he considers vital to any team that wants to be remembered, to achieve its greatness.
That his side touched the heights in that semi-final he believes was in spite of the refereeing. They could not manage it again the following week. Jones blames himself for that failure. But he has always set great store in making life uncomfortable for his players. This latest stated aim ought to achieve that at the very least, as the familiar derision of everybody else at such presumption builds again on the eve of the Six Nations. Some have greatness thrust upon them. Then they thrive or wilt.
