Six Nations 2016: England are just not fit enough, claims Eddie Jones

Coach says players were unable to keep up the tempo during the second quarter of the victory over Scotland

Eddie Jones wants his England team to improve their workrate ahead of the summer tour to Australia (Getty Images)

Eddie Jones may have been delighted with his England team’s “composure and class” in shutting down Scotland during the second half of last weekend’s Six Nations opener at Murrayfield, but he was none too impressed with a 20-minute drop-off before the interval that could easily have denied him a winning start as red-rose coach.

“We fell away because we were fatigued and it affected our skill level,” he said after presiding over the first training session in the build-up to the meeting with Italy in Rome on Sunday for which he hinted at tinkering with the personnel in the pack in order to inject more speed. “We need to fix [our fitness], because that second 20 minutes is the difference between Test rugby and club rugby. The speed of the game in the second quarter doesn’t drop at international level.

“Running speeds are pretty similar in rugby around the world from the kick-off, but the big change comes after 20 minutes. We weren’t able to sustain what we were doing and that’s what we have to work on. The players are fit enough to play Six Nations, but we wouldn’t be fit enough to play on hard tracks in Australia, definitely.”

As Australia is the destination for England’s three-Test tour this summer – an interesting prospect indeed, given that Jones is a Tasmanian who coached the Wallabies for four years in the early Noughties – the message is clear: there will be some sweat-bucket sessions between now and the conclusion of the domestic season at the back end of May.

Jones has not always believed in the complete superiority of the southern superpowers over the major European contenders: he regards the England side that demolished his own Wallaby team in the build-up to the 2003 World Cup and then beat them again in the final as one of the finest he has ever encountered. But he clearly believes there is a fitness gap between the hemispheres, to go with the chasm in skills.

Asked whether it was possible for this England squad to get up to speed in time for the forthcoming trip, Jones responded with characteristic confidence. “A hundred per cent,” he said. “We’ll need to work with the clubs on strategy, but we’ll have a couple of weeks leading into the tour and we’ll pick up a considerable amount once the players understand where they need to be to perform in international rugby. By the end of the Six Nations we should be in pretty good fettle.

“The key is to train specifically for rugby. You don’t get rugby-fit by doing other things. I’m not saying we’re unfit at the moment, but there are times during games when we don’t have the concentration and the application to be able to do what we want to do.”

Tuesday’s training at the team base in Surrey featured a live scrummaging session involving all those certain to travel to Italy. This explained why Jones, short of two back-rowers for a full “eight versus eight” work-out, called in Matt Kvesic of Gloucester and Josh Beaumont of Sale, while telling other members of the wider squad – the Harlequins wing Marland Yarde, the Bath wide man Semesa Rokoduguni, the Exeter centre Sam Hill and a trio of front-rowers in Matt Mullan of Wasps, Luke Cowan-Dickie of Exeter and Kieran Brookes of Northampton – to remain with their clubs in readiness for this weekend’s Premiership activity.