Six Nations: Is Eddie Jones ready to revive England after World Cup disappointment?

After a thrilling World Cup, international rugby in the northern hemisphere resumes with a Six Nations’ Championship in which an England side under new leadership have most to prove. Hugh Godwin reports

England head coach Eddie Jones (Getty Images)

Every year on the eve of the meet-and-greet with the media that marks the imminent Six Nations’ Championship, the captains and coaches gather at a hotel in Chelsea. An instant after Wales’s head honcho, Warren Gatland, arrived from Cardiff last Tuesday night, he had a glass of red wine in his hand, courtesy of England’s new man, Eddie Jones, who has been around the block more than enough times to master the etiquette of the bar. Whether Gatland finishes the Six Nations a step or two behind Jones remains to be seen; for Jones, even though he revels in a “been there, done that” worldly wisdom that makes him look like rugby’s Ronnie Wood, the Championship represents a gloriously fresh challenge.

It might have been different if the Australian, who with Gatland, Joe Schmidt and Vern Cotter has completed an Antipodean takeover of the four Home Unions’ fortunes, had not made such a spirited recovery from a stroke he suffered in 2013. A temporary loss of feeling in his left side was a shock to a workaholic with a penchant for posing questions to coaching colleagues at unsocial hours.

Jones, who yesterday celebrated his 56th birthday, remains a fan of early starts – the England squad were up at 6.30am the other day for protein shakes and a gym session – but he is said by friends to have heeded advice to increase the amount of sleep he was getting each night, which wasn’t much. Certainly he looks fighting fit now, and his ready smile and probing wisecracks have found an appreciative audience happy to move on from England being knocked out of the World Cup at the pool stage last October.

“I don’t think you ever get over a disappointment like that,” Mike Brown, the England full-back, said of the World Cup, “but you use it the best you can to motivate you. You keep working hard to put things right.” For England, that has meant “layering on” – as the new defence coach, Paul Gustard, puts it – a manageable level of detail in attack and defence in the seven training sessions available before next Saturday’s opener in Scotland.

This year’s fixtures

Sat 6 Feb France v Italy; Scotland v England

Sun 7 Feb Ireland v Wales

Sat 13 Feb France v Ireland; Wales v Scotland

Sun 14 Feb Italy v England

Fri 26 Feb Wales v France

Sat 27 Feb Italy v Scotland; England v Ireland

Sat 12 March Ireland v Italy; England v Wales

Sun 13 March Scotland v France

Sat 19 March Wales v Italy; Ireland v Scotland; France v England

As Jones sets out to make England “the dominant side in world rugby”, it is not just the other Six Nations teams who may be in for a rude awakening. The two Toms – Northampton flanker Wood and Leicester hooker Youngs – have been surprisingly dropped, and Sam Burgess’s 12-month dalliance with rugby union is long gone, but Jack Nowell, Jonathan Joseph, Anthony Watson and Billy Vunipola are among those retained by Jones, despite the coach associating them with a lack of work-rate in comments he made before his appointment.

Presumably this has been addressed by Jones, Gustard and the other new assistant, Steve Borthwick, as well as a high-powered crew of part-time consultants in George Smith, Jonny Wilkinson and Graham Dawe. The starting England team at Murrayfield are likely to feature 11 of those who began the 25-13 win over Scotland last season, when the English bombed three tries that might have won them the Championship, although with Chris Robshaw and James Haskell swapping the Nos 6 and 7 jerseys between them. The youth vote goes to back-rower Jack Clifford, prop Paul Hill and midfielder Ollie Devoto, in line for England debuts from the bench.

If a composite Six Nations table was drawn up from the past four years, England would be level with Wales on 16 matches won each, and Ireland a distant third on 11 wins, with Gatland’s men on top by points difference (203 to England’s 173). Those figures suggest Jones’s predecessor, Stuart Lancaster, has a right to feel hard done by at being out of a job, but the thirst in the media and, more importantly, in the boardroom is for titles. Twickenham’s lavish wine cellar must have a corner for unused bottles of Silvo, with one Triple Crown and no Championship since 2011.

England’s new captain, Dylan Hartley, knows all this horrible history, and more. Despite his much-documented bans, the controversial hooker has appeared in every one of the 35 Six Nations matches England have played since his first appearance in February 2009. Haskell is the only other starter still in the squad from that formative joust with Italy seven years ago, although another by the name of Steffon Armitage is still knocking about in Toulon, apparently.

To achieve a first Grand Slam since 2003 England need to get better at the breakdown, which is why Jones is leaning on Smith, the former Wallaby flanker now at Wasps. “George shows you how players can change and mature,” Jones said, with a nod perhaps to the recidivist Hartley.

“When George first came in [they were together at ACT Brumbies in 2000] he was a rat-bag of a kid from Manly. He was always in trouble at school and they nicknamed him ‘Camp Dog’ because his dreadlocks smelt so much. Now he has matured into this guy with a priceless ability to transfer information on to other players. Ask my good mate David Campese how he did things and he will have no idea. George Smith is a rarity as a brilliant player who has taken the time to understand what he has done.”

With so many squatly built hookers around – old pals Gatland and Jones played in the position, and Hartley, Rory Best and Guilhem Guirado have succeeded Robshaw, Paul O’Connell and Thierry Dusautoir as skippers of England, Ireland and France respectively – the Six Nations reads like a script for The Big Short II. Hartley said he relished the chance to be a mentor to England’s younger hookers Jamie George and Luke Cowan-Dickie – a thought the casual observer will take some getting used to, being more accustomed to the Northampton No 2’s mental lapses. George of Saracens is unlucky not to be England’s first choice, but the rumour mill suggests a shake-up for the second match in Italy.

All concerned are painfully aware that the four semi-final places in the World Cup were occupied by southern hemisphere teams, playing at a pace the Six Nations badly needs to emulate, although Scotland are still wondering how they were knocked out by Australia at Twickenham. The South African referee Craig Joubert – whose run from the field after that quarter-final, while more of a judicious jog than a frightened sprint, excited unfairly hysterical criticism – will return there for England v Wales on 12 March.

By then, on past form, England could easily be three wins to the good, especially as Ireland without O’Connell, retired from internationals, look less of a threat than the side who won the past two Six Nations.

Gatland can recall the centre Jonathan Davies into a settled Wales side, and the Kiwi conceded that the perennial worry over starting slowly due to hurried preparation might not wash this time. The Welsh-Irish rivalry has become the bitterest in the competition, and whoever loses in Dublin next Sunday will be required to salvage their Championship away to England, among other places.

France’s newly installed and uniquely indigenous coach, the utterly venerable Guy Novès, used the word “ambitieux” in his pre-tournament manifesto, and jettisoning the lumbering Mathieu Bastareaud is a positive step. But Novès also invoked a phrase with a cycling twist – “la tête dans le guidon”, the head in the handlebars – to signal plenty of hard work. Meanwhile his Italy counterpart, Jacques Brunel, is on a last Six Nations lap, with Conor O’Shea rumoured to be succeeding him in the summer.

Four Championship matches won by Italy between 2012 and 2015 to a measly three by Scotland in the same period greatly undermines Jones’s smiling assertion that England will be underdogs in Edinburgh. The Scots under Cotter have been heartened by the World Cup and they could build on some youthful front-row promise if they ever manage to keep their quality centres fit. But England should win.

The remainder of the Six Nations is too close to call. If it comes down to a last-day shootout like the one in 2015, no one will be complaining. Well, almost. “From a player’s point of view it would be better if all the matches on the last day kicked off together,” said Sam Warburton, the Wales captain faced with playing first against Italy on 19 March, while England round it all off against France, in the same order as last year’s mind-bogglingly eventful final round. “But I guess the players are in a minority. The best thing to do is win all your matches. Then no one can take it away from you.”

Six of the Best?

Youngsters to look out for this year

England: Jack Clifford (Quins), flanker/No 8. Age 22, Caps 0

Very exciting combination of size and speed and an ability to cover all the back-row positions.

France: Jonathan Danty (Stade Français), inside-centre. 23, 0

Parisian born and bred, Danty can run and pass but also hit a defence hard, as he weighs in at 110kg.

Ireland: Tadhg Furlong (Leinster), prop. 23, 3

Injuries to tightheads Mike Ross and Marty Moore give Furlong the chance to push Nathan White in a problem position.

Italy: Carlo Canna (Zebre), fly-half. 23, 7

Has a cool demeanour and a similar build to Johnny Sexton, is fond of putting boot to ball.

Scotland: Zander Fagerson (Glasgow), prop. 20, 0

Fast-developing scrum anchorman is set for a bench place against England next week.

Wales: Tomas Francis (Exeter Chiefs), prop. 23, 7

Francis (left) already possesses the powerful Exeter mauling gene.