Video - 'He's their third choice' - Jones reveals England to target specific Welshman
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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Even with absences we still had the cattle to make the playoffs. As it was, we nearly stumbled our way into the top 8. Which shows just how easy it was to get there. And still we failed. As for Razor, there are many instances of him patching up the Crusaders roster. Numerous. Several players Id never heard of. Also, using AB legend John Afoa was a classic.
But, some of the games we were losing were from schoolboy errors, or downright confusion. Either the players were really dumb (they weren’t) or they were poorly coached. Given the repetitive nature of errors, brain fades, poor decision making, & loose structures, this all lands with the coaching group.
With only six playoff spots now in SR, & Aussie franchises now consolidated to four, 2025 looks like a tight one. We'll have to tough it out under Penney & hope for the best.
Go to commentsAgree we need a 10, 12, 13 refresh. ASAP. Well, next season now lol. Reiko should be put back on the wing. He'll be an absolute menace there. Imagine 11 Reiko 14 Clarke 15 Jordan as the backfield unit.
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