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England coach Eddie Jones plays down fears of abuse on return to Murrayfield

Saturday’s Six Nations encounter will be the first time he has returned to Edinburgh since suffering verbal abuse two years ago

Jack de Menezes
Friday 07 February 2020 08:10 GMT
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Eddie Jones says he's picked his best England side to face Scotland

Eddie Jones is not concerned by any repeat of the verbal abuse he suffered on his last visit to Murrayfield, with the England head coach admitting he’s in the wrong job if he can’t withstand any taunts that come his way this weekend.

The Australian was subject of disgraceful abuse as he returned from Scotland the day after England’s 25-13 defeat at Murrayfield two years ago, an incident which resulted in three men being fined for what a judge described as using “vile” language towards Jones as he made his way to Old Trafford to watch Manchester United.

Jones was also physically assaulted on his journey home while Scottish fans brought up the Calcutta Cup result before aggressively swearing at him, and the incident prompted Jones at the time to reconsider how he travelled to and from matches.

Saturday’s Six Nations encounter will be the first time he has returned to BT Murrayfield since the ordeal, but even though he warned earlier in the week of the “niggle” that comes with taking on Scotland on their own turf, he insisted it meant little to him.

“It was a tiny incident,” Jones recalled. “It wasn’t of any significance. That happens every day. What do you reckon happens when I walk down the street? Some people say nice things, some people are into you. It happens every day. If you didn’t want it you don’t do this job.”

The 60-year-old has not been as verbally provocative ahead of the trip as he was before the opening weekend clash with France, where a promise of “brutal physicality” came back to bite him as France outmuscled his side to inflict a 24-17 defeat in Paris.

But while the loaded comments were absent at his team announcement on Thursday, his actions still said the same. Jones recalled Mako Vunipola and George Kruis to add sizeable bulk to the pack while Lewis Ludlam replaces Courtney Lawes in the back-row in the hope of matching Scotland’s breakdown prowess that brought them so much success two years ago, and it was left in no doubt that England will attempt to take on the hosts up front in the hope of laying the platform for success.

“We’ve got an obvious game-plan that we want to play against them,” Jones explained. “We’re not hiding from the fact that we want to take them on up front.

“That’s been part of the focus. Part of the focus has been to correct our attacking inside the 22. We got in there 14 times and they (France) got in there three. Normally you win the Test match doing that, but we were unable to convert that possession and territory into points. So we have done some work on that area this week.”

Jones was also happy to take the blame for the France defeat, though stood by his selection strategy after sticking with Tom Curry at No 8 and George Furbank at full-back, despite the former finding little success out of position and the latter struggling on his international debut in a hostile stadium. Instead, he reiterated that the sluggish start grew its roots in England’s Portuguese training camp last week, where the head coach elected to give his players a reduced workload due to the amount of rugby they have already played this season. He did though reject claims that the flat performance was comparable to the World Cup final defeat, which he maintains was “no embarrassment” as in his opinion there was not another side on the planet that could have beaten the Springboks on the day.

“France – for some reason we just weren’t on the button early,” he added. “I think I underprepared the team for the game so it took us some time to get into the game. There is a reason for that given the workload of the players. We underprepared for the game and I take full responsibility for that.

“But there’s a reason for that and my view is that we’ll see the reason at the end of the competition – that we’ll be full of running.”

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