Eddie Jones doubles down on experimentation through Autumn Nations Tests
Eddie Jones has urged his England players to bounce back from Sunday's shock loss to Argentina, but says he will continue to use the Autumn Nations Series to experiment with an eye on next year's World Cup.
Jones insisted he takes full responsibility for the 30-29 loss, believing he allowed attention to stray towards the squad's long-term expectations, and he expects a reaction when they take on Japan this weekend.
"I was very disappointed with the last game," head coach Jones said. "We weren't good enough and it was totally my responsibility.
"When your team doesn't play to the potential you want, there is always something in the message that you're giving the team that's not quite clear.
"When I reflect on the game, we've been looking at a number of long-term strategies to get ourselves set for the World Cup, and maybe our focus wasn't tight enough on the Argentina game. Maybe we were over-thinking a bit, and that's entirely my fault.
"There's a cluster of teams at the top of world rugby and we want to break that cluster, and to do that we have to have a number of ways to play the game. This next 11 months is to get enough equipment in our armoury so we can play in any way."
Jones has made three changes to his 36-player squad for Saturday's clash with the team he memorably steered to a famous World Cup win over South Africa in 2015, with Northampton duo Tommy Freeman and Alex Mitchell joining Saracens hooker Jamie George in being called up.
George's return is a surprise after he was initially expected to miss out on the entire autumn series after breaking two metatarsals while playing for Saracens early last month.
"The Saracens staff and our staff have done a great job on him," Jones said. "It shows the good collaboration between the club and the national team.
"I know he had a final check-up (on Monday) and both agreed he's ready to keep progressing so we're hopeful he'll be in contention for the 23."
Jones also hopes Manu Tuilagi will be passed fit after he struggled with blisters in the loss to Argentina, and believes his performance against the Pumas more than justified his selection.
"A blister can turn into many things so we'll just wait and see," Jones said. "But everything at this time shows him to be in the best nick he's ever been in, so after that hit-out on Sunday he'll come into this game in much better condition than he was."
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No just because the personal is much better than last year. I've shown no antagonism of Crusader players, you must be confusing me with someone else.
I have critized Razor for picking players he knows occasionally?
I said I'm not surprised because of his style, he's more a grinder player like Cane, not going to show up on peoples radar until you see how bad the other choices are. This year players like Clarke have been on fire and just show a bit more.
Are you one of those posters continually taking it easy on Razor because he doesn't have his Crusaders stars available? Do you think the rugby world is going to up to him suddenly once Mo'unga returns? lol
Go to commentsJohn you have been beating this drum for a couple of years, if you get proven right get back to us.
The last recent and decent Aussie coach was Ewen McKenzie, he was undermined and forced out by a couple of slimy Aussie players who were given a free pass when they should have been disciplined.
So our history since McQueen is very checkered and it seems to make little difference whether we have an Aussie coach or a Kiwi coach. The players have been entitled for a long time and we had to hit bottom to get them back into reality and to stop thinking it is all about them.
Cheika was an OK coach but his 'go our and destroy the opposition' tactic worked for a while and then didn't.
Please give me a list of great Aussie coaches that I have missed.
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