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England vs South Africa Rugby World Cup final: Pep Guardiola invites Eddie Jones to visit Manchester City

Jones visited Guardiola during Catalan’s time at Bayern Munich

Mark Critchley
Northern Football Correspondent
Friday 01 November 2019 17:10 GMT
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Eddie Jones says England will play with 'no fear' in Rugby World Cup final

Pep Guardiola has invited Eddie Jones and his England staff to visit Manchester City following Saturday’s Rugby World Cup final.

Jones visited Guardiola during the Catalan’s time in charge of Bayern Munich in order to observe training and learn from his methods.

The England head coach described his time with Guardiola as “fascinating” and “bloody brilliant”, claiming it left him “embarrassed” by his own coaching.

Guardiola was reminded of this encounter on Friday, on the eve of England’s final against South Africa in Yokohama, and sent his best wishes to Jones and his players.

“We spoke once or twice. He was so kind, it was a pleasure to see him and meet him,” Guardiola said.

“We talked about some movements in rugby, I’m a big fan but I don’t understand too much about the sport but I watch on TV.

“I will ask him how they can regenerate the players like they do after the games, it’s incredible – how can they survive? I cannot imagine. We spoke about sport, about life, nothing special.”

Guardiola said he would be happy to meet Jones again after Sunday’s final and invited him to Manchester in order to pick his brains.

“We can learn from a lot of them,” he said. “We didn’t spend too much time together but hopefully they can win and we can invite him and his staff to come here and we can talk more.

“It would be nice for all of us, especially me. So we wish them luck and hopefully they can win. It was nice but it was short [when we met in Munich].”

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