Eddie Jones steps up England training in effort to close 20% gap to All Blacks

The Australian said 'everything' he does now is for the World Cup in 2019

Jones has a grand plan to win the 2019 World Cup (Getty)

With his grand plan to win the Rugby World Cup in 2019 passing the halfway stage, Eddie Jones will ramp up training ahead of the autumn internationals next month and focus all of England’s attentions on the tournament in Japan in 2019, with the head coach insisting “everything” he does now is aimed towards closing the gap to reigning champions New Zealand.

Jones announced his squad on Thursday for the autumn internationals against Argentina, Australia and Samoa, naming 32 players that included uncapped Sam Simmonds and Tom Dunn as well as “apprentice players” Marcus Smith and Zach Mercer, who are unlikely to see competitive action as they’re included to “make the tea” while learning their trade, according to Jones.

The inclusion of Exeter Chiefs back-row Simmonds is just rewards for the 22-year-old’s form this season, having been deployed by Rob Baxter at No 8 in the absence of Thomas Waldrom and starring on both the Premiership and European stages.

The Torquay native will compete with Wasps’ Nathan Hughes for the No 8 role, something that Jones is looking forward to in order to increase the depth he has in such a crucial position given the injury-enforced absence of Billy Vunipola, and the Australian insisted it is something that he needs to do in order to close a gap to the All Blacks that he now rates at 20 per cent.

“You can get figures on everything in the world right now,” Jones explained. “You can get information on any team in the world, watch any training that you want to in the world. We've got some information on other teams that indicates there's a gap of about 20 per cent in certain areas and that’s what we've got to breach.”

Since arriving to replace Stuart Lancaster at the end of 2015, Jones has spoken of bridging the gap between England and the All Blacks, given the gulf that has developed between them and the rest of the world that is displayed in their back-to-back World Cup triumphs.

On a results front, the All Blacks appear vulnerable after suffering defeat by Australia last weekend, a second loss in the same calendar year for the first time since 2012, and failing to beat the British and Irish Lions in the summer.

Sam Simmonds has been called up as an 'apprentice player' (Getty)

But Jones instead hailed Steve Hansen’s work as “so clever”, given his New Zealand counterpart is himself building a squad that can interchange seamlessly regardless of which player he selects, such is the injury crisis that he currently has on his hands, while also teaching them to push the boundaries of what’s possible on the international stage. He used England’s tour of Argentina in the summer to blood a new breed of youngsters, handing out 11 new caps in total while securing a 2-0 series win, but that in itself is not enough to beat the All Blacks and he believes that there are still lessons to be learned throughout this second phase of his three-phase plan to win the World Cup.

“Argentina was fantastic because we had 28 players missing, so you don't get a better opportunity than that,” Jones added. “One of the things I've learned from watching the All Blacks learns about the World Cups is that they used to look at it as they were the number one team in the world and they turn up at the World Cup as the number one team and they win it.

“What they've learned over the last eight years particularly is the process of building towards a World Cup campaign. What they've done post-Lions has been so clever in terms of being able to expand their depth, experimented with the way they've played the game, they've deliberately put themselves under pressure in games to equip themselves better for the World Cup. That's something we can certainly learn from and we're not trying to copy them, but given the experience I've had in World Cup campaigns, it's important that now we've had two good years and have a solid squad, solid style of play and solid credits in the bank, it's time now to start developing the depth and adaptability of the team. We need to make the team more uncomfortable, not have everything nice and rosy. Have a bit of chaos in the camp.”

Part of that plan to change things up will be to take his squad onto the beaches of the Algarve. The England players will convene on Sunday night and fly to Portugal for a six-day training camp, in which they will face new drills and tasks that Jones has not put them through before.

Jones has picked a squad building for two years' time (Getty)

“Next week we are running three different programmes in Portugal,” the head coach explained. “There will be a normal programme for the bulk of the squad, a beach programme for selected Lions players and a semi-beach programme for other selected Lions players. Then we will assess where each player is and work out who is going to play.

“There will be different sorts of activities for three or four days – hard training but different training. We just feel that physically and mentally a number of the players need to be freshened up – some more than others. We have a pretty good idea who is going to be where but we haven’t finalised that as yet.”

Jones took his squad to Portugal at the same time last year, and the subsequent result was four victories from four matches in the autumn internationals. England only play three matches this time around, but there is a much more serious feel around this announcement as the World Cup begins to creep over the horizon. If the last 18 months have been the most intense year-and-a-half-period in English rugby history, then the next will certainly take the international game to the next level.

England squad for autumn internationals:

Full backs: M Brown (Harlequins), E Daly (Wasps), J May (Leicester Tigers), D Solomona (Sale Sharks), A Watson (Bath Rugby).

Inside backs: D Care (Harlequins), O Farrell (Saracens), G Ford (Leicester Tigers), P Francis, (Northampton Saints), J Joseph (Bath Rugby), A Lozowski (Saracens), H Slade (Exeter Chiefs), M Smith (Harlequins), B Youngs (Leicester Tigers).

Back five: T Curry (Sale Sharks), C Ewels (Bath Rugby), N Hughes (Wasps), N Isiekwe (Saracens), M Itoje (Saracens), G Kruis (Saracens), J Launchbury (Wasps), C Lawes (Northampton Saints), Z Mercer (Bath Rugby), C Robshaw (Harlequins), S Simmonds (Exeter Chiefs), S Underhill (Bath Rugby).

Front row: D Cole (Leicester Tigers), T Dunn (Bath Rugby), E Genge (Leicester Tigers), J George (Saracens), D Hartley (Northampton Saints), M Mullan (Wasps), M Vunipola (Saracens), H Williams (Exeter Chiefs).