Six Nations 2016: Danny Care energised by Eddie Jones’ plans for high-tempo England set-up

The Harlequins scrum-half is pushing very hard for a starting place against Scotland in this weekend’s opener at Murrayfield

Scrum-half Danny Care has risen up the pecking order since the arrival of new coach Eddie Jones (Getty Images)

What Eddie Jones gives with one hand, he takes away with the other. The rat-a-tat wisecracker from Australia has pushed puritanism into the past tense since succeeding Stuart Lancaster as England’s head coach in the aftermath of last autumn’s failed World Cup campaign – more than once in recent days, the players have been seen with a pint of something other than isotonic energy water in their mitts – but there has been a price to pay.

“I think we’re all clear as to where we stand,” said Danny Care, the Harlequins scrum-half, who has risen up the No 9 pecking order since Jones’ arrival and is pushing very hard for a starting place against Scotland in this weekend’s Six Nations opener at Murrayfield. “We’ve been trusted to go out for a couple of meals and a couple of beers, and that’s been nice: maybe things are a little bit looser than they were. But Eddie has also been very open and honest with us.

“He’s put it out there that eighth in the world ain’t good enough. He expects us to be the best side in Europe, for starters, and to do that we have to win the Six Nations.”

Jones has been particularly explicit about what he expects from his scrum-halves, with Ben Youngs of Leicester being the other contender. The boss is something of an expert in this regard, having coached some outstanding practitioners down the years: George Gregan during his time with the Wallabies; Fourie du Preez when he worked with the Springboks; Fumiaki Tanaka throughout his wildly successful spell with Japan.

We can take it as read that if either Care or Youngs fails to show the game management skills he associates with the very best No 9s, they will quickly find themselves spending more time with their respective clubs. Care believes the new order suits him, however. “Eddie wants us to play at a high tempo, do some things off the cuff and kill teams with our speed,” said the Yorkshireman, who, when performing at the optimum, can do all three of those things in his sleep. “It’s music to my ears.”

Twenty-five players will travel north for the Calcutta Cup contest – a group that includes the uncapped Wasps centre Elliot Daly and the similarly undecorated Saracens lock Maro Itoje. At present, they are on the flight list as reserves, but Itoje will be drafted on to the replacements’ bench if the experienced Northampton forward Courtney Lawes fails to recover from a hamstring problem.

There had been some expectation that another member of the Northampton pack, the tight-head prop Kieran Brookes, would be included in the party, but he has been sent back to Franklin’s Gardens to continue his comeback from injury. His young clubmate Paul Hill stays with the elite group and is all but certain to make his red-rose debut at some point this weekend.

If Jones is heading for Edinburgh with a priority other than the obvious one of winning the game, it concerns the close-quarter work up front – the building blocks of the England game that gave way under pressure during that benighted global campaign. To that end, the new forwards coach, Steve Borthwick, has been working overtime, which, happily for everyone involved, is pretty much his default position.

“We need to build a dominant set piece and make sure we’re powerful and athletic in the loose,” Borthwick said. “That takes time. I’d have liked more training sessions, but as that hasn’t been the case, I’ve concentrated on maximising every minute.”

At least the World Cup fallout has lost its toxicity. Many things were said by many players following the premature exit from the tournament, most of them anonymously. “We’ve drawn a line under that,” said Care, who was one of those most put out by the loose talk. “This is a new group and it’s up to us to drive standards and get the team ethos right.”