'Intense barracking': The England team room as they watched Euros

Eddie Jones has saluted the achievement of Gareth Southgate and his England football team in reaching the final of Euro 2020, their semi-final win over Denmark on Wednesday night getting raucously cheered on by their rugby counterparts from their hotel base in Teddington. 

England's rugby team are in their final week of camp preparing for this Saturday's match versus Canada at Twickenham and the football semi-final from Wembley offered an opportunity for a good team bonding session around the television even though the start of that match was overlapped by the second-half of the Lions win over the Sharks in South Africa.

"We would just like from England rugby to congratulate Gareth and English football team for their great result last night," said Jones after he had named an England rugby XV that featured five changes to his starting XV and included four more new caps to add to the dozen rookies who got their first cap in last Sunday's win over the USA. 

"We all watched it with a lot of interest, a lot of intense barracking. It was great fun and it has obviously given the country a lot to cheer about. We wish them all the best in the final and hope they one better than what we did."

Jones has had past dealings with Southgate and he likes his fellow England national team coach. "Gareth is a humble, curious, very well-educated coach. The thing that impresses me for a young coach he carries himself with a lot more experience and he will know what to do. He doesn't need any advice from me.

"All coaches basically do the same and you just have your own way of doing things and you are always looking for different ways of saying things or doing things. We saw their recovery where they were all on the unicorns and we just had a recovery out here where we had a Canada theme, so we had axe throwing and chopping down trees and doing all things like that. 

"Those ideas that you get from other coaches, you try to grow them yourself and certainly there is nothing specific I can say but some of the ideas that Gareth has you then take on yourself. As Pep says you have to be an idea thief and then it becomes your idea."