The survivors of Eddie Jones’s ruthless post-World Cup cull would be well advised to adopt the brace position when they arrive in camp later this month.
Life is going to be decidedly uncomfortable for the chosen men at the start of this new regime. The head coach believes there is vast potential in the Red Rose ranks but he declared yesterday that the quest to establish a core of world-class talent will be a ferociously tough process.
Jones is setting the bar sky-high and anyone who can’t clear it won’t be around for long. He may smile and crack jokes a lot, but the Australian is ready to crack the whip and several heads in order to orchestrate an English revival.
There was a clear sense at a first squad announcement featuring some eye-catching omissions that Stuart Lancaster’s successor feels England have under-achieved for too long and been allowed to coast in certain respects.
A culture shock is on the cards and Jones said: ‘I think the players are going to find it difficult, because sometimes if you play in the Premiership here and you do well then you get selected for England and you are quite comfortable. We have to make the players a little bit uncomfortable. You’ve got to be desperate and hungry for success — absolutely fanatical about wanting to be in a winning England team.
‘The players who don’t meet it, then maybe they’re not going to be there. My job is to create a winning English rugby team and that is what I am going to do. If players don’t want to be part of that they don’t have to be.
‘It’s going to take more than they have ever done in their lives to create a winning England team. Something has to change. It’s the old definition of insanity — someone expecting different people to do the same thing over and over again, hoping to get different results. It doesn’t happen. If we do the same as we have done since 2003 then we will get the same results.’
Jones’s hard-line approach while in charge of Japan produced famous results but also led to murmurs of unrest within a squad who were pushed to the limits. He expects the same when he pushes the England players and the prospect doesn’t trouble him in the slightest. ‘You will find players who complain about it,’ he said. ‘I have no doubt that in the first couple of weeks there will be complaints. I will be happy if that happens, because then I will know we are getting change. Some players need to be fitter, some need to be faster, some need less time on the ground. For all the players there will be areas where they need to improve.’
Jones sees a country full of fine players who are just below the pinnacle of global standards, so his crusade will be to push them into the elusive world-class category.
‘I have no doubt that in this squad of 33, there are four or five players who, if they change their mindset and they change their attitude, can become world-class players,’ he said, matter-of-factly. ‘If we get four or five world-class players, then we can be the dominant team in the world. That’s what it takes.
‘Why haven’t England been dominant since 2003? Because they haven’t had those players. Our job is to develop those players. There are enough good, hard-working players here, but to be a dominant team in the world you’ve got to be better than good and hard-working.’
Asked if the highest standards had not been reached because players were fixed in their outlook or because they hadn’t been challenged enough, Jones added: ‘It is probably a bit of both. There is growth in all the players here but it will be dependent on their attitude and work ethic.’
One of the pressing issues for Jones will be to identify the ideal candidate at openside flanker to help cure a long-term breakdown problem. For the time being, the coaches may use either newcomer Jack Clifford — who is seen as a No 8 option in the longer term — or James Haskell in that key role, although Matt Kvesic is also in contention as a specialist ‘fetcher’.
Jones has sought advice from his former master of the arts with Australia, George Smith, who is still going strong at Wasps. ‘I had coffee with him in Chiswick two weeks ago,’ he said. ‘I asked him who is the best seven you’ve played against, he told me — and they’re in the team. George is working with Haskell at the moment. Whether we can get him to come and work with England, I don’t know — I don’t know if Wasps will let him.’
Adding further coaching expertise will enhance the drive to raise standards in the months and years ahead, but that uncomfortable process will begin the week after next. Jones will not tolerate mediocrity, as his players will soon discover.
England squad for Six Nations
Forwards
PROPS (age, caps, club)
Dan Cole (28, 56, Leicester)
Paul Hill (20, 0, Northampton)
Joe Marler (25, 37, Harlequins)
Matt Mullan (28, 9, Wasps)
Henry Thomas (24, 7, Bath)*
Mako Vunipola (25, 27, Saracens)
HOOKER
Luke Cowan-Dickie (22, 1, Exeter)
Jamie George (25, 3, Saracens)
Dylan Hartley (29, 66, Northampton)
second row
Maro Itoje (21, 0, Saracens)
George Kruis (25, 10, Saracens)
Joe Launchbury (24, 28, Wasps)
Courtney Lawes (26, 42, Northampton)
BACK ROW
Josh Beaumont (Age: 23 Caps: 0, Sale)
Jack Clifford (22, 0, Harlequins)
James Haskell (30, 62, Wasps)
Matt Kvesic (23, 2, Gloucester)*
Chris Robshaw (29, 43, Harlequins)
Billy Vunipola (23, 21, Saracens)
BACKS SCRUM-HALf
Danny Care (29, 53, Harlequins)
Ben Youngs (26, 52, Leicester)
FLY-HALf
Owen Farrell (24, 35, Saracens)
George Ford (22, 17, Bath)
CENTRES
Elliot Daly (23, 0, Wasps)
Ollie Devoto (22, 0, Bath)*
Jonathan Joseph (24,16, Bath)
Sam Hill (22, 0, Exeter)*
BACK THREE
Chris Ashton (28, 39, Saracens)
Mike Brown (30, 43, Harlequins)
Alex Goode (27, 19, Saracens)
Jack Nowell (22, 10, Exeter)
Anthony Watson (21, 15, Bath)
Marland Yarde (23, 7, Harlequins)
*INJURY REPLACEMENTS
* Devoto in for Manu Tuilagi
* S Hill in for for Henry Slade
* Kvesic in for Dave Ewers
* Thomas in for Kieran Brookes
ENGLAND’S SIX NATIONS FIXTURES
Feb 6: Scotland v England
Feb 14: Italy v England
Feb 27: England v Ireland
Mar 12: England v Wales
Mar 19: France v England - Daily Mail