Eddie Jones has dismissed concerns over England’s discipline and claimed statistical analysis shows “the most successful teams infringe”, a day after remarks from Scotland that questioned the legality of his side’s defence.
Jones was discussing England’s penalty count during their 12-6 victory against Wales – they conceded 10 to their opponents’ two – and insisted that while the “smart guys” say double figures is too high, evidence suggests otherwise. Jones denied that his side actively seek to break the laws, revealing the referees Wayne Barnes and Glen Jackson have been in camp this week as part of England’s preparations for Saturday’s Calcutta Cup match.
“All the smart guys tell you it’s got to be under 10 but the data doesn’t show you that,” Jones said. “The data shows the most successful teams do infringe. We certainly don’t try to infringe. We try to play the game legally and we have referees in for training so we understand the laws of the game.”
On Wednesday the Scotland coach, Gregor Townsend, said of England’s suffocating defence, “it will be interesting to see whether they stay onside”, before confirming he would be meeting the referee, Nigel Owens, on Friday, as is standard practice. Jones opted against returning fire – “If [Gregor] wants to talkabout the referee, let him talk about that, I’m concentrating on the game” – instead choosing to warn Scotland that England have left no stone unturned in their preparations for a fixture they have won eight times in a row, including a 61-21 triumph at Twickenham last year.
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Since victory against Wales, England relocated to west London during the tournament’s first fallow week and scheduled two days of training against Georgia, followed by a breathless open session at Twickenham last Friday before returning to their Bagshot base this week. “They’ve got to understand we’ve had two very good weeks of preparation,” Jones said.
“We had good scrummaging last week against Georgia, we had a fast run at Twickenham, we’ve had two good runs this week. We are ready to play. We’re really focused intensely on this game. We’ve had a well-coordinated, cohesive preparation. We’ve looked at parts of our game we think we can improve and we’ve looked at how we can improve physically. We’re ready to go. It’s a massive game. The Calcutta Cup – you don’t get any bigger than this. We’ve prepared for the game, we can’t control that other stuff.”
Jones has made one change to his starting lineup with Nathan Hughes coming in at No 8 for the injured Sam Simmonds. England are seeking a 25th win in 26 Tests under Jones – the first was his first match in charge at Murrayfield two years ago – and the Australian says he is not bothered about artistic merit. “Test match rugby is about winning, it’s not about entertainment. If you want entertainment, watch Super Rugby. It’s about winning and [we have] found a way to win. Don’t ask me about style because style is irrelevant.”
Jones also revealed the lengths to which he and his coaches go in order to assess how prepared his side are: “The amount of time they spend talking about the game, players’ faces – they are all the little things. Are they on time for meetings? Are they stretching properly? If they are cutting corners then [they] are in trouble. We watch the videos, we watch what they do in the gym. The only place we don’t have cameras is in their rooms.”