It may be the Chinese Year of the Rooster, but England are intent there will be no crowing from France at Twickenham on Saturday evening, a ground where the visitors have won only once in the Six Nations in the last 20 years.
While there has been a frenzy to get hold of tickets for the final match of the tournament when England visit Ireland in what is being touted as a potential grand slam decider, the champions’ head coach, Eddie Jones, is not looking past France, a team that appears to be on the rise after six largely wasted years.
“Guy Novès [France’s coach] has done a great job,”Jones said. “He has picked a traditional French side, apart from the Fijians on the wing, and they have a good scrummaging front row, heavy locks, athletic back-rowers who can run, jump and tackle. Their half-backs control the game, they have centres who run good lines and a back three that are a little different.
“They have got two speeds. When the game is structured they play at an orthodox pace but when they get a turnover, and off-load or receive a bad kick, their whole game changes and it suddenly comes alive. It is like when you are sitting watching television and someone sits on the remote control to put it into fast forward. They turn into an incredibly athletic team that can move the ball continuously.”
Toulouse showed that in their narrow Champions Cup defeat at Wasps earlier this month, their power in the set-pieces, driving mauls and around the fringes complemented by their ability to move the ball quickly in broken play, taking advantage of defenders going low in the tackle by off-loading the ball one-handed above head height.
Jones used his training camp in Brighton at the start of the month to focus on France and warn his players not to get distracted by talk of the Lions tour to New Zealand in the summer or the prospect of beating the All Blacks’ tier one international record of 18 consecutive victories, which England will do if they become the first team to win back-to-back grand slams in the Six Nations.
“If you get complacent you get a kick up the arse,” Jones said. “We are doing everything we can to ensure there is no complacency, but there is no magic solution because praise makes you weak, doesn’t it? We don’t talk about losing, only getting better. There will be times when we play well and the other team will be better. It has not happened yet but could well do so.”
Asked if he feared a defeat, which England have not endured since the 2015 World Cup, may lead to an unravelling of confidence, he replied: “That is something I am not going to contemplate because it would mean we did not have the right players. Were that the case, we would not have had a 13-0 record last year. As long as you do not get too far ahead of yourself and have the right processes in place, you learn all the time. Learning is what it is all about.”
The No8 Billy Vunipola is unlikely to feature in the tournament, while his brother Mako may return from his knee injury in the final two rounds. Their absence means England have to reassess the gainline battle with the momentum generated by the pair allowing the scrum-half Ben Youngs to get the ball away quickly against a retreating defence.
“There is more food at dinner now they are not with us,” Jones said. “When the buffet finishes, there is still some left – it used to be all gone! They are big ball-carriers and Billy has been a great lieutenant to Dylan Hartley, leading from the shadows. Mako grew enormously when he had the opportunity in Australia and then the autumn, going from a 50-50 choice with Joe Marler to being one of the best looseheads in the world.
“We are going to miss them, but we have fantastic replacements. I thought Nathan Hughes was outstanding against Australia, playing like a big No8 in his last 40 minutes, and Joe – I am positive he will be fit – was the form loosehead in last year’s Six Nations before his incident in the Wales game. They won’t be the Vunipolas, but they will be something different.”
