Scotland vs England, Six Nations: Eddie Jones defends decision to keep England’s status quo

Although new coach has tinkered off-field with training in Hyde Park and scrapping the captain’s run

Eddie Jones, centre, the England head coach, leads his squad out for a training session at Pennyhill Park (Getty)

Eddie Jones is making changes: England have been training in match strip rather than practice gear because he wants his players to be fully connected with red-rose reality ahead of Saturday’s Calcutta Cup collision with the Scots; they will not have the usual eve-of-match session at the stadium because they are minimising their time in Edinburgh by travelling late; there has even been a brief run-out in Hyde Park – a fresh experience vividly described by the new head coach.

“I think the dogs got the scoop on the team – there were plenty of dogs around,” Jones said. “We also saw Prince Harry’s house. He doesn’t do it too tough, does he? I just wanted the players to get used to doing different things in different places. It was a walk-through, really, and there weren’t any disguises. There was a lot of duck faeces on the ground, though. People had to be good to dodge it all.”

Jones is changing the nature of the public discourse, as well as the fine detail of Test preparation. “I was talking to my wife the other day about the scale of the media coverage in English rugby,” he continued. “We have a little dog of our own [a Chihuahua by the name of Annie, according to the best intelligence] and there was this picture of Dylan Hartley in the newspaper. So our dog is eating its food while looking at Dylan Hartley!”

The one thing the Australian has not changed, to the satisfaction of a significant percentage of red-rose followers, is the single most important bit: that is to say, the team. Had Stuart Lancaster, the man he succeeded as England boss following the World Cup meltdown last autumn, still been in control, he would probably have come up with something very close to the combination confirmed by Jones, especially without Sam Burgess around to lead him up a blind alley.

Mike Brown, Anthony Watson and Jack Nowell are the most familiar back three available now that Jonny May of Gloucester is comprehensively crocked; Jonathan Joseph has been the go-to outside centre for a while; George Ford, Joe Marler, Dan Cole and Billy Vunipola were all first-choice players when the global gathering began to unfold in mid-September. So too was Chris Robshaw, albeit in an alternative back-row role, and it is fair to say that Hartley would have been at the heart of the red-rose scrum had he not butted his way out of the tournament a few weeks before the opening match.

By picking Danny Care ahead of Ben Youngs at scrum-half, asking Owen Farrell to fill the Henry Slade-sized hole – or, just maybe, the Manu Tuilagi-sized crater – at inside centre and press-ganging James Haskell into a tour of duty at open-side flanker (a role the Wasps captain has performed on and off for longer than he would care to remember), Jones has gambled to an extent. However, it is hardly a high-roller’s attempt to break the bank.

But Jones, not obviously a man who reaches for the word “sorry” without very good reason, saw no need to apologise for resisting whatever temptation he may have felt to give the Wasps centre Elliot Daly and the Saracens lock Maro Itoje an early taste of life at international level. In fact, he was combative in the extreme in defending his choice of personnel. “Those blokes will get picked when they’re ready to play Test rugby,” he said, decisively. “There are different things a Test player needs and that’s what we’re developing in those two youngsters.”

He seemed a whole lot happier explaining his tinkerings on the preparation front. Eyebrows were raised to the heavens when he ventured to suggest that training in match trim would help the players “get used to the colour” – as though long-serving hands like Hartley and Haskell might be surprised to discover that England generally perform in white – but the coach insisted that was “a little thing that sometimes helps”, adding: “It’s important that you get a feel of what you’re going to look like on game day. Everything in rugby is about familiarisation.”

As for the decision to steer clear of the traditional captain’s run session, Jones made a solid case. “Having to fly up there, get to the hotel, go on the bus to training…that’s fatiguing and I don’t like fatigue on the day before a match,” he argued, with considerable force. “I did this during my time coaching Japan. I just think travelling and training is too much and I don’t want to expose the players to it.

“We’ve worked hard this week – we’ve put a lot of effort into making sure the players are right psychologically. From now on, it’s about recovery and regeneration. They might do bits and bobs when we arrive, but you don’t have to go to Murrayfield to do bits and bobs. The kickers need to go and they will go, but that’s it.”

It was unclear who would have first dibs on the marksmanship duties. Farrell, a cold-eyed points accumulator of considerable quality, is marginally more dependable than Ford, but there is nothing much in it. Both men have spent recent minutes – or rather, hours – with the famously obsessive Jonny Wilkinson, so on the face of it, England should be well equipped on the kicking front whichever midfielder wins the race to the tee.

In parting, Jones was asked whether he had any theories as to why Australians are making such an impact on English coaching. “We’re part of the Empire,” he responded, mischievously. “We’re the convict side of you nice English gentlemen. When you look at us, you’re looking at the bad side of yourselves.” Might it be that the Aussies first mastered ball skills when they had them chained to their ankles? A cheap shot, but he started it.