Eddie Jones knows his team for next week’s first Test against Australia in Brisbane, but wants to check on the Saracens and Exeter players who took part in the Premiership final last week before making a definitive decision.
England arrived in Australia with media coverage more intense than normal because of the presence of Jones, who coached the Wallabies in the 2000s and had his bags thoroughly searched on arrival at Brisbane Airport.
“All World Cup winners have had domestic sides used to doing well,” said Jones. “We’ve got 10 players from the two Premiership finalists who are used to winning. Saracens are champions of Europe and that is a good base. And we’ve now got this England team used to winning. To maintain that, you have to work harder and smarter and with that attitude, we will get better.
“The first thing we have to do in Australia is recover. The guys from Saracens have played a number of big games and they will probably not start rugby training until Monday and I could not think of a better place to do recovery than the Gold Coast. I pretty much know the Test team with some blokes playing their way into the 23, but I have to work out how those who played in the final are physically and psychologically.”
Jones is happy to be the centre of attention for the Australian media before England’s first three-Test series. They have won three of 17 internationals against the Wallabies on Australian soil, but they went through the 2003 World Cup in Australia unbeaten.
“It’s going to be a bit of fun,” said Jones. “The Australians are taking England seriously and they have already started to wind me up. One show has an Eddie Watch every week, but they have not come up with anything so far because I have been well behaved.
“Playing the second-best team in the world in their own backyard is one of the greatest challenges, and Australia is a hostile place for an overseas team. You know that everyone’s well coordinated in making sure it’s as difficult as possible, which is how it should be, and we’ve got a young team.
“The first Test will be massive. We’ve got to win it and that is what we are preparing for. The players were thinking about it before we left. Australia will treat the series seriously and that’s what we want them to do. They know that we’re here and they know that we’re improving.”
The last time the two sides met was in the World Cup at Twickenham last October. Australia won 33-13, their record victory at the ground, and the result marked the end for the England management. No sooner had Jones arrived in South Africa to start work with the Stormers than he was being asked to replace Stuart Lancaster.
“We have only been together as a group for nine weeks but on Sunday we overcame a Wales side that has been together for a number of years,” he said. “That was a good indication that we are moving in the right direction and it also showed that we now have concrete depth to the squad.
“Michael Cheika has turned Australia from being a joke side as they were 18 months ago when they were dropping Tests left, right and centre and having more headlines on the front pages than back and put together a hard-working, aggressive and physically competent team.
“That’s how you win rugby games. It’s not magic. If you watch New Zealand play, they’re physically aggressive but they have plus skills. We want our physical aggression to be the absolute base of our game, which is what England sides previously had in the 1990s and up to 2003. I do not know why it was lost, but we are not going to lose it now.”
