Eddie Jones has pledged to hoist English rugby from its comfort zone and transform its mindset after picking seven uncapped players in his 33-man squad for the Six Nations championship. Jones has ditched a third of the Rugby World Cup squad selected by Stuart Lancaster, opting instead to select players he believes can be world-beaters.
The Australian is also warning his reshuffled squad to brace themselves for an intensive regime that will require maximum commitment. “They can all be better players in some way but how long it takes to get that growth out will be dependent on their attitude and work ethic,” Jones said. “Sometimes if you play well in the Premiership and then get selected for England you are quite comfortable. We have to make the players a little bit uncomfortable.
“We just have to create an environment in the team where the players want to be absolutely fanatical about being in a winning England team. I have been employed by England, not to be the saviour of English rugby. My job is to create a winning English rugby team. That’s what I have to do and that is what I am going to do.
“If players don’t want to be part of that, they don’t have to be. If they don’t want to work hard they won’t be there. It’s going to take more than they have ever done in their lives to create a winning England team, that’s the reality. Because otherwise it would have happened. Something has to change. You’ve got to be desperate and hungry for success. I have no doubt that in the first couple of weeks there will be complaints coming out. I will be happy if that happens because then I will know we are getting change.”
There is no place, at least for the moment, in Jones’s thinking for 10 World Cup squad members, most notably Tom Youngs, Tom Wood, Geoff Parling and Brad Barritt. Danny Cipriani, Luther Burrell and Joe Simpson have also been overlooked in favour of youngsters such as Maro Itoje, Jack Clifford, Sam Hill, Ollie Devoto, Paul Hill, Luke Cowan-Dickie, Elliot Daly and Josh Beaumont.
Jones will urge these callow newcomers to emulate England’s World Cup winners of 2003. “I have no doubt that in this squad of 33 there are four or five players who, if they change their mindset and they change their attitude, they can become world-class players. If we get four or five world-class players – and I’m not going to name them – then we can be the dominant team in the world. Why haven’t England been dominant since 2003? Because they haven’t had those players.”
The new coach is slightly less certain about one or two finer Six Nations details, appearing to be under the impression England are playing Italy in London next month rather than Rome and having to be corrected after saying Scotland had “never won the Calcutta Cup” in recent times (they have won it three times this century, most recently in 2008).
However, having shared lunch in Loughborough with his predecessor Lancaster – “He’s a real gentleman … much more than me, mate” – he fully understands England fans will not wait indefinitely for the team to perk up. “Mate, my honeymoon finishes on 5 Feb,” he quipped. “I understand that.”
