'I've had a few chats': Why Jones is cheering on England and Belgium at football's Euros

Eddie Jones will be tuning into football's European Championship in the search of ideas to strengthen his own performance as the England rugby coach. Jones has struck up a good relationship with football boss Gareth Southgate and has taken part in regular virtual chats with the Three Lions boss, David Moyes, Arsene Wenger and coaches from the NBA and NFL to discuss the challenges of working in sport during the Covid era.

England launch their Euro 2020 opener against Croatia on Sunday and with his rugby side’s summer series not beginning until June 27 when England A team take on Scotland A, Jones will be on the lookout over the coming weeks for pointers that might translate to rugby.

“I know Gareth reasonably well. We have chatted over the last period of time and I’ll be following his interests and the team’s interests,” he said after announcing his squad of 34 players for next week's training camp. “They obviously have a talented group of players as evidenced by two English teams being in the European Cup final and one team in the Europa League final.

“They have got some great talent at the moment and it’s about how that talent can come together and play as one team where players have to play in different roles. It’s no different to what we have to do in terms of sometimes players have to play a slightly different role to what they do at their club because it suits the team better. I will be watching that.

“Obviously there are some good players in other teams so we will see how the coaches get the best out of those players. Again, I’ve had a few chats with the Belgium coach [Roberto Martinez] and he has got some talent there. How they handle the expectation of being one of the favourites with outstanding players like Kevin de Bruyne will be of interest.”