When Australian Eddie Jones was installed as England Head Coach earlier this year after the disastrous World Cup campaign in 2015, his first task was to turn around a team that had flopped at its own tournament.  He started the rebuilding process by achieving a respectable outcome in the Northern Hemisphere’s annual Six Nations tournament.

That he achieved a Grand Slam is significant, albeit in a 2016 competition that was not one of the strongest with World Cup hangovers aplenty.  Yet from the moment he took on the job, Jones’ focus was the 2019 World Cup.  He realised that in order to have a realistic chance of challenging for the win in 2019, England would need to be beating the top Southern Hemisphere sides consistently rather than the odd win poached here and there.

Thus in 2016, his eye was trained on his home country Australia and the tough three match summer tour that would give them a much better indication of how the reconstruction of a rugby nation’s ethos was progressing.

Eddie Jones Masterplan

Jones’ plan to beat the Aussies was for England to get back to the style he knew when he coached sides against them in the early part of the 21^st century.  He wanted the forwards to be ‘nastier’ and to look to their traditional strengths of scrummaging and brutal forward play.  This, he believed, would help win the psychological battle before and during each game.  Jones’ appointment of Dylan Hartley as his new captain embodied those desires and he would be a very different leader from Chris Robshaw.  Hartley would harness his naturally aggressive personality and distill it throughout the rest of the team.

Jones also believed that there was talent behind the scrum and that in order to take on the best sides in the world, they would have to allow those talented individuals the freedom to play – a trait that was perceived to have been stifled under the Stuart Lancaster era.

So to Australia and Jones concentrated on where England had been weak against the Aussies in the Autumn and set about addressing those elements.  The front row were challenged to regain their scrum dominance and the new – as far as Australia were concerned – captain Hartley, planned to lead from the front.

The Australian back row made a huge splash at the World Cup in England’s back yard last year and the combination of Pocock, Hooper & Fardy was seen as unstoppable post that tournament.

Indeed, it seemed that Jones had been pretty unadventurous with his selection, sticking with his two “6 and a halves” in Robshaw & Haskell alongside the man mountain that is Billy Vinupola.

Haskell soon showed what intent the English trio had arrived with when he smashed Pocock in the tackle early in the first test in Brisbane.  In truth, although it was not that engagement that put paid to Pocock for the 2^nd and 3^rd tests, it certainly made the men in gold sit up and take notice as to what Was in store for the remainder of this series.

Change in the Backs

The big change in the back division came, in part, after a horrid kicking display by George Ford against Wales in the final build up game before the series down under.  However, it probably came more as a result of the level of performances put in by Owen Farrell – Saracens destroyed all who stood before them and that coupled with Farrell’s dependency with the boot led to him being instilled as fly-half for the start of the series.

Jones was quick to reinforce his belief in Ford though and proved this belief when he made the pivotal move to take out Luther Burrell early in the first game.  He made the tactical decision to return to the Ford/Farrell 10/12 axis, crucially though, with Farrell continuing to take the kicking duties.

The final quality that Jones had to hard code into his men was that one win wasn’t good enough.  Nothing less than a series win would suffice.  Winning the first test would surprise the rugby world with England sitting at no. 8 in the world rankings and Australia at no. 2.  However, in Jones’ eyes, this would purely be what was expected inside the camp as a minimum.  The drive to then complete the series win in Melbourne would be firmly in their focus.

Ruthless

Now that that has been achieved, his comments serve to maintain that focus when he states that “we will not be happy unless we win the series 3-0.  That’s what the best sides in the world expect, to be ruthless.”

It is this aspect of the team’s psyche that will be crucial in pushing on towards the 2019 World Cup and have England arriving there believing they are capable of beating anyone.  So far though, every box on Eddie Jones’ list can well and truly be ticked.

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