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Eddie Jones explains Cokanasiga's surprise omission from England 23
By Nick Heath
As Eddie Jones prepares his England side to play their last competitive fixture before Rugby World Cup 2019, he spoke to RugbyPass to explain his selection to face Scotland and his review of the Championship so far.
Jones said, “I think we’ve had a very good 6 Nations but the Scottish game will be our best performance. I think we had a bad thirty minutes against Wales and that’s obviously put us in a difficult position to win the Championship.
"But we can do all we can on Saturday, which is how we’re prepared and we’re really focussed on putting forward our best performance.”
The most notable change to the England line up from their win against Italy is the dropping of Joe Cokanasiga from the match day 23, after he picked up the man of the match nod in that game.
Jones explained, “We just want to look after him as a young player. I want him to play 100 tests for England and at this stage of this career, there’s still certain things of his game that he needs to work on, and he knows he has to work on that. He’ll come back and he’ll be a very valuable player for us in the World Cup.”
He added, “There’s a whole story to looking after young players. It’s not about the media, it’s not about playing, it’s not about how they think, it’s about putting everything together and giving them a pathway to be successful long term. The one thing you don’t want to see is a young guy like that play six or seven tests and waste all the talent he’s got. We want to make sure he has a long career and he’s a great player for England.”
Jones has reinstalled his centre pairing of Henry Slade alongside Manu Tuilagi, the Leicester man starting all five games of an England Six Nations campaign for the first time and who confirmed this week that he will be staying at Leicester for the foreseeable future.
Jones commented, “He’s a massively important player for us. He’s a strong ball carrier, he’s a great defender. He’s also an infectious guy. He’s a quiet guy but he’s quite infectious around the group. The players like playing with him, he loves playing with this squad and so you get that intangible good feeling when he plays. He’s only going to get better and better.”
Ben Youngs will become England’s most capped scrum-half on Saturday, a player that Eddie Jones encouraged in no uncertain terms to trim down on the kilos when he took over.
On Youngs’ accolade, Jones remarked, “I think it’s a great testament to him that he really keeps developing his game and keeps getting better. This is not a peak for Ben, it might be a statistical peak but the peak of his career is still to come.”
As Jones prepares for this 42nd match in charge of England, what is his progress report to date?
He said, “Really positive, we’re going in the right direction. We’ve got a good feeling within camp, a good work ethic within the camp, good leadership within the camp and we’ve got to make sure that every day we keep getting better and Scotland’s a great chance to show where we’re going.”
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Latest Comments
I think Italy were always targetting this match and intended to win. They needed to exorcise the 2023 RWC. I think they could have done with a bit more help from other 6Ns particularly from Ireland to knock more holes in NZ and their confidence.
Mentioned before the Italy Argentina match was a virus that ripped through the Italy camp early that week. In general play Italy were competitive albeit with a high error count and crucial missed tackles.
Ive said it before the era of NZ turning up unprepared for all comers and triumphing is definitively over. If a Tier1 team target NZ and NZ do not prepare accordingly they are in with a major chance of losing. It used to occur the odd time in RWCs against France, now it can occur v any Tier1. The competition has improved. NZ can still be at the top but their talents must be deployed sufficiently into dismantling teams as with their attack then allowed to exploit.
They dismantled Ireland pretty well in Dublin which went largely unnoticed. That allowed them scoreboard advantage and attacking opportunities of which one was enough.
That Italian team beat Wales and significantly Scotland last year. They used the loss to NZ in the most positive way possible. No doubt NZ prepared but I would assume it was similar to versus Argentina: 3/4 arsed at best. These test matches are rare and this was another chance to practice dismantling a determined and prepared opponent which was lost. If Italy had scored a 7 pointer at 17-6....an Italian win was on.
Go to commentsGB = England, Scotland, Wales. UK = England, Wales, Scotland, NI
Nothing to stew son.
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