Eddie Jones wants his England rugby team spoken of in the same breath as Jurgen Klopp’s all-conquering Liverpool.
Three months to the day since being battered by South Africa in the World Cup Final, England return to work with what has the potential to be an explosive Six Nations clash against France.
Jones says he has been through a period of ‘grieving’ as he battles to come to terms with his second Final defeat, following Australia in 2003.
He tells how he threw his body into an exhaustive week of physical exercise - taking on men and women 20 years younger at a CrossFit camp in Japan - in an attempt to flush out the hurt.
But when it comes to helping his players get over over the biggest disappointment of their lives, he has turned to the power of motivation.
He started by declaring that England would become “the greatest team the world of rugby has ever seen” - one that would “stop the nation” when they played.
And last night he challenged them to emulate Klopp’s World and European club champions, the runaway unbeaten leaders of the Premier League.
"Everyone wants to watch Liverpool, don’t they,” he said. “Because they play with that ferocity. They play with that desire and they never get beaten.
“Even when they do get beaten, they haven’t been beaten. We want people to speak about us like that. It’s more than just wins and losses, we want to have an effect on how the nation sees rugby.
“The number of football fans that have come up to me and said they watched England in the World Cup semi-final… When you play that sort of rugby, people want to watch you. Like Liverpool now."
By looking forward with such purpose Jones is hoping his players don’t dwell on the past - even if they did produce one of rugby’s greatest performances only two games ago.
The magnitude of their Final defeat left them searching for answers but unable to identify one that adequately explains what happened.
“Getting over it wasn’t a straightforward process,” he revealed. “You go through a grieving period. I remember Clive (Woodward) saying he went and locked himself in a room for three days (after 1999) and did the same after the (2005) Lions.
“I had three weeks in Japan, one of which I didn’t do any rugby at all. It’s probably the longest I’ve gone without rugby. I did CrossFit three times a day. My wife and I went on a CrossFit camp for five days – twice in the morning, once at night.
“You don’t have to think. You just get in there and rip in. It’s ridiculous at our age but I love being a 60 year old competing against 40 year olds, seeing if I can beat them.
“I started last and got into the middle of the class by the end. It was a bit of a cleansing. Then I came back and was ready to go.”
Jones resumed work identifying that teams that lose World Cup finals tend to fall away in the next four years as they “don’t have that forensic want to look into everything and tear everything apart”.
He then did exactly that, appointing two new coaches, changing the way England train and picking an uncapped fullback in George Furbank for Sunday's clash.
“The only reason I’m continuing is because I think this team can improve,” added the Australian, who says his longer term future is in the hands of his players.
”The players tell you whether you should continue or not and that’s what I’m looking at,” he explained. “They will let me know.
“If they play well and the team is going well, then maybe you should continue. If the team’s indifferent then maybe they need a change.”
