Six Nations: England coach Eddie Jones takes aim at Irish tactics and Danny Cipriani

England coach jokes about high-ball game and says fly-half is not good enough

England coach Eddie Jones talks with captain Dylan Hartley (Getty Images)

The surroundings may have been different – only a blind man or an alien would confuse Kensington High Street in all its bustling glory with suburban Surrey in all its tedium – but the message remained the same. “This,” said Eddie Jones, the England head coach, after overseeing the latest red-rose training trip to the capital, “is not a kindergarten. If people want to play for this team, they have to work things out for themselves.”

The Australian was in one of his more combative moods following yesterday’s work-out on the playing fields of Latymer Upper School – an establishment that has precisely nothing in common with the blackboard jungle wing of the education system, but is still a very far cry from the five-star comforts of the England team base on the outskirts of Bagshot. He explained in no uncertain terms why Danny Cipriani, still among the most talked-about players in the country, was not pressing for an immediate Test recall, and took a mischievous swipe at Ireland, who head for Twickenham a week on Saturday in a last-ditch bid to save their Six Nations title.

How will England set about beating the injury-riddled champions? “By winning the Aussie Rules contest,” Jones responded, referring to Ireland’s determinedly aerial approach to a sport originally designed to be played on terra firma. “We have Hawthorn coming over for a training session.”

That reference to one of Melbourne’s great “rules” clubs may have been a wisecrack, but it was a joke pregnant with meaning. In public, Jones has refused to reflect on any England performance under the stewardship of the previous coaching regime, but he knows full well that in Dublin last year, the red-rose backs suffered all manner of indignities under the high ball.

“Ireland are a clever side,” the Tasmanian continued. “They’re one of the best-coached sides in world rugby, full stop. They’re very resourceful. They’ve chosen to go in this direction in terms of their style of play and they’ve won the last two Six Nations titles doing it. Who am I to criticise them?”

Jones does not for a second doubt his charges’ capacity to make a better fist of things in nine days’ time than they did last March, but he will spend the next week reminding them that if England are to win their third championship match in succession, it will be because of their reactive decisions on the field rather than his proactive ones off it. Hence the “kindergarten” reference.

“The strength and conditioning staff are doing a good job and the players’ application has been outstanding: they’re training harder than they ever have and I reckon the fitness level of the Test 23 is up 30 per cent on the other people in the squad,” he said.

“By the end of the Six Nations, we’ll have a side that’s really ready to go. But it’s up to the players. We’ll give them all the guidance they need, but they’re the ones who have to do it.”

Which is where Cipriani comes in – or, as things stand, doesn’t come in. The celebrity midfielder’s decision to leave Sale for Wasps next season, rather than chase the euro signs in France, is proof positive that his international ambitions remain alive, but Jones was blunt about the outside-half’s prospects of reclaiming the shirt he craves.

“What does he have to do? He has to play well,” the coach said. “There’s no point him talking to the press about it. To be in this team you have to play like a Test player – you have to dominate in club rugby and show all the skills of an international. He’s not in the squad at the moment because he’s not good enough to be in it.

“We have outstanding No 10s in George Ford and Owen Farrell and while he’s a capable player, he has a long way to go to beat those two. George is 22 and looks 15: he’s just marking his crease and finding his feet. He’s an exceptional talent, but he’ll be at his best at 25 or 26. He’s a master player in progress.

“When you look back to Jonny Wilkinson, he made his first start for England at 18 and got beat 76-0 [by the Wallabies on the 1998 “tour of hell”]. If you’d watched him in that game, you’d never have picked him again. You can look at Daniel Carter too. He was at his absolute best at 30, when he had all the experience and patience and knowledge.”

In celebrating Farrell’s virtues with even greater enthusiasm – “He has a great Test future as a starting 10 or a starting inside centre and he’s going to be a talisman because he’s a strong leader, a good defender, has good skills and plays with his heart on his sleeve” – he drove home the point. No one, least of all Cipriani, could accuse him of not telling it like it is.