Eddie Jones: New England coach promises to start with a clean slate

The red-rose’s first foreign coach says players on the outside under Stuart Lancaster can get back in if they are prepared to buy into his values

Jones is not concerned that he will only have two weeks to work with the players before his first match, against Scotland (Getty)

Maybe it was a desire to give everyone a “fair shake”, as they say Down Under. Or maybe it was a realisation from the very first day of his tenure as England head coach that the Pommies do not have an unlimited pool of quality players to choose from. But Eddie Jones had good news for the recidivists and opinion-dividers who had failed to find favour with his predecessor, Stuart Lancaster.

“I am not worried about what’s happened in the past, all I’m worried about is what’s going to happen in the future,” said Jones, the 55-year-old Australian who has been given a four-year contract up to and including the 2019 World Cup in Japan, the land of his mother.

“I can’t judge players on what they’ve done before,” he said. “I’ve got to look at them and say, ‘Can you help this team win?’ If they can and if they buy into the team values then you can always have guys that come from outside a little bit.”

Among the players on the outside looking in for the recent World Cup elimination at the pool stage, which did for Lancaster’s position, is Danny Cipriani. He has a drink-drive charge hanging over him that will be heard next month, while the Northampton hooker Dylan Hartley was dropped because the latest in a series of disciplinary bans would not be served in time.

And Leicester’s Manu Tuilagi – while ultimately not fit from a groin injury anyway – was summarily jettisoned by Lancaster in May after a conviction for an early-hours altercation with female police officers and a taxi driver.

“If Cipriani’s good enough to be in the 30, he’ll be in the 30,” said Jones, while resolutely refusing to confirm any players as being in or out of the squad he will have to name in January for the opening Six Nations match in Scotland on 6 February.

“If he’s not good enough, it’ll have nothing to do with what he’s done in the past. But he might have to get a taxi to training, mate.”

That last quip was typical of Jones, and something you would not have expected to hear from Lancaster, whether through English stiff-upper-lippedness or a worry that it might be seen as mickey-taking.

England’s first foreign head coach was presented to the press on Friday in the RFU Council Room, which is adorned with the memorabilia of a sporting institution – here a painting of the England XX of 1871 (that’s right, 20, in the days before 15-a-side), there a brand-new portrait photo of the Queen, signed “Elizabeth R, 2015”.

“We’re just convicts in Australia,” Jones said when he was asked whether he would be able to talk about national identity to men wearing white jerseys and the red rose. “I’m old enough to remember when we used to sing ‘God Save the Queen’ every week at school assembly. So I know it very well. Yes, I’ll be singing it at the Scotland match.”

But if that is the hymn sheet taken care of, the team sheet is, of course, something else entirely. Jones arrived in London from Cape Town (where he extricated himself from a contract with the Stormers) on Wednesday night. Then he is off to Los Angeles this week to take part in World Rugby’s review of the Tier Two nations’ World Cup performances – very good, famously on the part of his most recent team, Japan – then to Tokyo to collect his wife. A stop-off in Australia along the way is also necessary to wish Happy Christmas to his 91-year-old mum.

Interspersed with the long-haul travel will be trips around England that are shorter but possibly frostier, and not just because of the weather. Jones plans to discuss players’ form with the directors of rugby at the 12 Premiership clubs, and when he gets to Worcester and Exeter he will find in Dean Ryan and Rob Baxter two men who would have preferred his job to go to an Englishman.

“I have a reasonably fundamental knowledge of the players in England,” said Jones, who also expects to “have a coffee” with his old rival Sir Clive Woodward, “and there is technology that enables me to see all the club matches.”

Will he be hunting the human Holy Grail of a playmaking inside-centre that Lancaster thought he found in Gloucester’s Billy Twelvetrees, but was never able to settle on? “I’m looking for players that fit the system,” he said. “Sometimes we might need a guy like Jamie Roberts, sometimes we might need a guy like Matt Giteau. It just depends on how we want to play that week, and there’s not always that sort of player around. I remember going to Paris for a coaches’ seminar four years ago and we asked the French coaches, ‘How many French centres can pass?’ and they couldn’t name any. So everyone’s after the second receiver that can pass. I’ve got to maximise the resources that we’ve got.”

The new man admitted he will be unable to dictate to clubs where they play their England prospects. And once his first squad is picked, Jones will have just two weeks working with them before fighting for the Calcutta Cup at Murrayfield against a much-improved Scotland side.

“I saw Bob Dwyer during the World Cup and he reckons you only need one week to change a team,” said Jones, referring to his fellow former Australia coach.

“Maybe his age is getting to him. You need more than a week. But if you get the players to understand how you want to play and prioritise, those things you can change quickly. It is never going to be perfect, we are not going to be all ready when we play against Scotland, but I want the players to have a clear understanding how we want to play. If we do that we’ll have a good performance.”

What Eddie told The Independent on Sunday: A year of critical analysis

On the 2015 Six Nations:

“The English balance is terrible. The one thing Lancaster hasn’t done is get the selection right. ”

“A lack of work ethic is what sticks out with England. They have great carriers but none of them work hard enough off the ball.”

“I think top coaches fear the English scrum, but you can’t rely on it to be a game-winning factor. That is where England need to be more flexible.”

During the World Cup:

“An international coach has to be a good selector. Some of the best coaches in the world aren’t necessarily the best on the ground; it is more that they are good selectors.”

“A significant factor in England is the media – they put pressure on the national coach. You have got to be able to handle the media.”

“As head coach of Australia or South Africa, New Zealand or England, you’re going to get well paid. It’s more about delineation of the key things you want – comfort in knowing that you can do the job as you want to.”

“To win a World Cup you need at least 650 caps in your team. If you are starting a campaign four years out from the World Cup, you have got to blood new players early.”

On Steve Borthwick:

“He’s not ready to be a head coach but he’s a guy who should be in the [England] mix, straight away.”