Several of England’s grand slam-winning squad have been warned they will be axed from this summer’s tour to Australia unless they change their attitude and perform better in the season’s final weeks. Eddie Jones, the head coach, said four or five players have been told they must improve if they want to participate in the three-Test series against the Wallabies.
Jones, who also confirmed he is keen to promote the Worcester-bound centre Ben Te’o to his squad, warned all his players last month he expected them to maintain high standards when they returned to their clubs.
“If you look at the 32 or 33 players we used for the Six Nations I’d say at this stage 27 or 28 of those players have played with distinction,” Jones said. “There are four or five who haven’t and those guys are on notice they won’t be going on tour unless they change their attitude.
“What they’re doing in games is not good enough. It’s not talent, it’s attitude. These guys get their heads filled. You have agents saying: ‘Wear these shoes, you are fantastic.’ They need to sort themselves out otherwise their English careers will be something that’s a good memory for them and the only guys they will have to talk to are their agents.”
It is understood Jones is particularly focused on certain forwards, at least one of whom was a regular member of the matchday 23 during the Six Nations. The Australian is adamant England cannot get ahead of themselves simply because they have secured a first grand slam since 2003. “Part of the job is keeping the guys’ feet on the ground. We haven’t done anything yet. We are still fourth in the world. When we get to first in the world, then we can start strutting about and saying we have done something. We haven’t done anything yet.”
Jones recalled what happened to the all-conquering England side of 2003 when they played the Wallabies the following summer.
“I was coaching Australia in 2004 and we put 50 points on them in Brisbane. We knew they were in the pub drinking on the Thursday night. We have three or four players who have shown that attitude at club level, have not put their bodies on the line and are not doing the things we want to see consistently from England players. We don’t have time to change bad habits.”
The no-nonsense Jones is planning to take between 30 and 32 players and, as well as recruiting a specialist scrum coach, will finalise his squad after the Premiership finalists are confirmed. He also remains hopeful Dylan Hartley will have recovered from concussion in time to lead his country to Australia. “We’re expecting him to play before the end of the season and be right to face Wales on 29 May,” said the coach, who also has no plans to rest any senior players. “At this stage of our development I don’t think there’s a need to rest anyone. It’s really important we keep the team growing. If we go down to Australia and win the series we get more confidence for the November Tests.”
The English-qualified Te’o, who is leaving Leinster for Sixways this summer, is among those high on Jones’s list assuming he is a fully-registered Worcester player at the start of June. “At the moment he is not qualified because he is not on contract but if his contract did start earlier there would be a possibility he could come on tour, definitely,” added Jones, a big fan of the former South Sydney rugby league player. “He doesn’t come with the hype of a Sam Burgess but he is an enormously quality player.”
