An emotional Eddie Jones fought back the tears on Friday as he outlined what it means to lead England into a World Cup. Jones begins his fourth World Cup campaign and his first with England against Tonga on Sunday and by his own admission he is a bundle of nerves. Excited too. And as shown by the tears that welled in his eyes, evidently proud at the ride he and his squad are about to embark on.
This was not particularly like Jones, not when facing the press anyway. Temuera Morrison, the actor who plays Jones in the recently released film that retells Japan’s miraculous victory over South Africa four years ago, has talked about perfecting the Australian’s “stink eye” – the infamous stare that more often than not precedes a tongue-lashing. That is the sort of thing we have come to expect from England’s head coach. But not on Friday. Asked what coaching England in Japan makes him feel, he said: “It’s humbling, mate. It’s a great honour to coach England ... and I just want to make sure I do my best.”
Here was a glimpse of vulnerability from a coach for whom words such as driven, relentless and ruthless have become synonymous. “I think World Cups are always emotional,” he continued. “You get to do something that is pretty special. To coach a nation and to be responsible for a nation at a World Cup, where you know it’s not just rugby fans watching. Families watch World Cups, that’s the difference. It becomes an event for the country, rather than an event for rugby followers. It becomes an event for this country here. To be involved in that is a real honour. I’m massively nervous and I’m massively excited. If I didn’t have that feeling, I’d be a little bit worried.
“Because you don’t know. The one thing we don’t control is the results of games. We control the preparation for the games and every coach – all 20 coaches out here – is having this conversation now. They all think they’ve done a great job preparing their team, but we don’t know, do we?”
England: E Daly, A Watson, M Tuilagi, O Farrell (captain), J May; G Ford, B Youngs; J Marler, J George, K Sinckler, C Lawes, M Itoje, T Curry, S Underhill, B Vunipola. Reserves: L Cowan-Dickie, E Genge, D Cole, G Kruis, L Ludlam, W Heinz, H Slade, J Joseph.
Tonga: D Halaifonua, A Pakalani, S Piutau (captain), C Vuna, V Lolohea, K Morath, S Takulua; S ‘Fisiihoi , S Sakalia, B Tameifuna, S Lousi, H Fifita, S Kalamafoni, Z Kapeli, M Vaipulu. Reserves: S Maile, L Talakai, M Fia, D Faleafa, N Manu, L Fukofuka, J Faiva, N Tu’itavake.
Jones went on to explain the sense of anticipation surrounding England’s first match in Japan. After three months of meticulous planning England are now ready to take the field, or as Jones puts it: “The World Cup is like a rollercoaster. We are at the top of the ride now, we are looking down – everyone’s nervous, everyone’s excited. You get down the first slope, you are not sure if you are going to throw up or hang on.”
Perhaps the nervousness explains why Jones has named his strongest side available. He has publicly toyed with the idea that he may field a blend of senior players with some of the youngsters in his squad but he has instead gone all guns blazing. George Ford and Owen Farrell are paired at 10 and 12, with Manu Tuilagi outside them and Tom Curry dovetails with Sam Underhill in the back row.
Both of those combinations were first tried in last month’s record win over Ireland and, in total, 13 of the 15 who played that day have been selected with Courtney Lawes preferred over George Kruis for his athleticism and Anthony Watson coming on to the wing for Joe Cokanasiga, who has been hampered by a knee injury of late.
On paper it looks like a team designed to go around Tonga rather than through them, but Jones added: “We want to take them on. We are England and we want to take them on up front so no one will come out of there guessing.”
Tonga meanwhile, have named a side featuring seven England-based players. They are also coached by Toutai Kefu, who played under Jones for Australia in the early 2000s. “When we are ferocious and direct that’s when we play our best football,” said Kefu. “For us to be at our best we need to play ferociously for a lot of the match. It is a massive challenge for us but we have got nothing to lose and we are going to throw everything at it.”
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Team guides
Pool A: Ireland, Japan, Russia, Samoa, Scotland
Pool B: Canada, Italy, Namibia, New Zealand, South Africa
Pool C: Argentina, England, France, Tonga, USA
Pool D: Australia, Fiji, Georgia, Uruguay, Wales
It could be argued that England starting both of their fly-halves and openside flankers is unnecessary but to start the campaign Jones is leaving nothing to chance. “Going into your first game, you never know what it is going to be like,” he added.
“Everyone has prepared to win the World Cup. Everyone thinks they are prepared for it. Within the group, you are going to have players with varying degrees of adaptability and adjustment, and you have to try to help them get through it. You’ve got to adapt to that and the players have equipped themselves to ride the rollercoaster because there’s going to be some turns, there’s going to be some accidents, there’s going to be some fun. We want to enjoy all of those things that come along and the team’s equipped to handle it.”
And Jones’s message for the thousands of supporters who will fill the stadium? “Hang on to your seat. They’re going to join us on the rollercoaster.”
