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Video - 'He's their third choice' - Jones reveals England to target specific Welshman
By Peter Hanson
Eddie Jones has made little secret of England's plan to target Rhys Patchell in Saturday's crunch Six Nations clash with Wales, saying the fly-half faces "enormous pressure".
Despite a lack of exposure at Test level, Patchell played a starring role in Wales' opening-round win over Scotland, with regular 10s Dan Biggar and Rhys Priestland both sidelined by injury.
It was Patchell's first Six Nations outing and just his sixth Wales appearance overall, and England coach Jones has warned the Scarlets back that he faces an altogether different challenge at Twickenham.
"The pressure on him is going be enormous. It's whether he has the bottle to handle it," Jones told a news conference.
"We'll find out on Saturday.
"He hasn't played much Test rugby at all. He is going to have [Chris] Robshaw at him, [Owen] Farrell at him, [Danny] Care at him - all guys that have played a lot of Test rugby.
"Wales have to get the ball wide and Patchell hasn't played much Test match rugby. He's a young guy, he's inexperienced and is their third-choice 10.
"He's got to get the ball wide and that's going to be a big job. It will be different to playing against Scotland.
"Scotland couldn't cope with the expectation and now he's got to cope with the expectation of playing well.
"Patchell will have to find guys around him to help because he'll be under some heat."
Despite having only a six-day turnaround from beating Italy in Rome on Sunday, Jones opted to make just two changes to his starting XV, with Danny Care replacing the injured Ben Youngs and Jonathan Joseph coming in for Ben Te'o.
On the Joseph decision, Jones added: "It's just my gut feeling with Joseph. I feel he will start the game well against Wales. Jonathan's got great experience, he's fast, a great defensive player.
"We were very happy with Te'o last week, but it's also his second game back and, in my experience with players in their second game back from a long injury, it's always the most difficult game."
Wales' win against Scotland came despite a mounting injury list, and Jones recognised Warren Gatland's side will have a different mindset.
"Wales played really well against Scotland but it's going to be different on Saturday - they had no expectation on them last Saturday but this week they come full of expectation," he said.
"Everyone has been telling them how well they played. Warren Gatland's been talking a lot this week. He's confident. They're confident."
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Latest Comments
Yet Ethan Blackadder was one of our best against the World Champion Springbok. When he came back to the Crusaders later in the season , he made a huge difference, ( a long with others like Codie Taylor), we nearly made the Play Off's. Ethan has plenty of rugby left in him. His family , Dad Todd Blackadder must be very [proud of him. Todd Blackadder was a 3 time champion captain of the Crusaders, '98, '99 and 2000.An icon in this area. Also twice captain of Canterbury , '97 and 2001 when we won the NPC and Ranfurly Shield winning captain in 2000.
Go to commentsIt's the same criticism of Dmac and Mo'unga as well. Sadly the way the game has been heading recently it's the only way to break down a defence, and a player of Lawrences nature would have a very limited chance at doing that because he's too one dimensional.
Noah Lolesio is your sort of player and that worked OK, but only because his team is far more creative than Englands for example. The highly organized Irish attack was also another that didn't require much from the 10, but that is now changing with Prendergast who is in that league mold like the most new age 10's.
So it is in fact your two which would require even more change to make the most of than Marcus Smith.
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