Eddie Jones does a good fireside yarn and he was on cracking form when looking forward to England’s opening game of this autumn’s series. Between a string of anecdotes about his time with South Africa, including one about the current Springbok head coach, Allister Coetzee, falling off a bar stool because he was laughing so hard, he was asked when his England side would become the finished article. “November 2nd 2019, 8pm,” he replied instantly, referencing the next World Cup final. “We will be at our absolute peak. We’ll be like Rocky, doing push-ups at the top of the stairs.”
It is an enticing image, the only uncertainty being precisely how many of the weekend’s matchday squad will still be around in Japan in three years’ time. It is not only injury that is refreshing the largely settled team Jones has chosen until now and there is a chance for half a dozen newish – or recycled – individuals to book their seats on England’s bullet train.
At the front of the queue this weekend is Wasps’ Elliot Daly, who has nipped in ahead of his outside-centre rival Jonathan Joseph after looking a touch sharper in training in Portugal last week. If that feels harsh on the benched Joseph, ever present in England’s nine-game unbeaten run under Jones this year, it is no accident. Jones has not got where he is today by indulging players who cruise, even for a second.
Tellingly, too, it was not Daly’s classy footwork, pace, ability to beat a man or long-range goal-kicking that has earned the Wasps’ centre his first start for his country’s senior team. Instead Jones singled out his enthusiasm – “he’s full of energy” – and the way he has reacted to the coach’s initially unflattering view of him: “I thought he had to work much harder and that’s what he’s done. He’s doing all the small parts of the game better.”
In other words Daly had to bend to Jones’s methods rather than rely on his extensive reservoir of natural talent. It is one of the reasons, it seems, why the prolific Semesa Rokoduguni has been omitted in favour of Marland Yarde, who already knows precisely what is demanded of him in an England jersey. “My gut feeling is that Marland and Jonny May are right for Saturday,” said Jones. “It’s a different sort of game and there’ll be other Tests in November which will be right for Roko to play.
“I want him to play 30-40 Tests for England and to do that I’ve got to make sure that what happened to him last time [being dropped after one game] doesn’t happen again. So I’ve got to manage that player well. Do you want to make your debut as a Test match batsman at the Waca in Perth against four West Indies quicks or on a flat track in Melbourne against spinners? He’s got things other guys can’t do but I want his first Test [under me] to be a game where he plays really well. If he does that his career will grow.”
It is slightly different with Tom Wood, recalled for the first time since last year’s World Cup, whom Jones clearly now sees as a self-confident figure who can replace the injured James Haskell on and off the field. “He’s got big shoes to fill – and Hask will tell you that,” said Jones with a grin. “But Wood’s come in and he’s so full of enthusiasm. He’s got a bit of Rambo about him. He walks around the hotel with no shoes on, he’s got bows and arrows round the corner, he’s got chainsaws. He’s played 42 Tests but he’s come in like it’s his first Test. He’s just busting to do well for the team.”
The same will apply to Courtney Lawes, about to win his 50th cap in the second row, and the three uncapped players on the bench – the Harlequins tighthead Kyle Sinckler, Wasps’ back-row Nathan Hughes and the Worcester centre Ben Te’o. Jones is clearly relishing the potential of all three, not least their explosive ball-carrying power. “We took Sinckler to Australia as a project player to see what he was made of. He has got some attributes that other tighthead props don’t have. But he didn’t have the coachable bits which is putting your head in and being uncomfortable for long periods of time.”
The Wales and Lions prop Adam Jones has duly tutored Sinckler in the dark arts and another Welsh front-row legend, Dai Young, has played a prominent role at Wasps in bringing through Hughes, described as “quite exciting” by the hard-to-please Jones. He feels the same way about Te’o, whose previous international experience was with Samoa’s rugby league side. Whether they all make Japan in 2019 is now up to them.
