Eddie Jones comes out swinging in defence of training methods after yet more injuries on England duty

Jones insisted no one could tell him how to train his players

Jones said he is preparing his players for Test matches (Getty)

Eddie Jones has been on the ropes recently after England’s dismal Six Nations and Sunday’s defeat to the Barbarians but the combative Australian has come out swinging at critics of his training methods.

Bruce Craig, the multi-millionaire Bath owner, was the most recent to have a crack at Jones saying the attrition rate at England training camps was unacceptable.

Beno Obano was the latest player from Craig’s club to visit the casualty unit when he mangled his knee ligaments at England’s recent training camp in Brighton and he faces up to a year on the sidelines.

Anthony Watson, Dave Attwood, Tom Ellis and Sam Underhill are other Bath boys to be crocked on Jones’ watch and it left Craig wondering if England had a duty of care to their players.

But Jones claims his way is the high way in preparing for Test rugby and Craig, and other club bosses, have no qualifications to tell him how to do his job.

"We prepare players for Test matches,” said Jones. “I don't think anyone at a club has the right to tell a coach how to train a Test team. I don't have any concerns. We train appropriately for Test match rugby. The only reason I'd alter it is if we need to train harder, or we need to train lighter, to be at our best for Test matches.

"You never want to get players injured, you're always looking to train appropriately for the game but we play a collision sport.

“The context of how we are going to train is the same as we did for the Australia and Argentina tours. We realise the players have played a number of games and the players will train appropriately.”

Jack Nowell, Tom Curry, Jonny May and George Kruis have also returned lame from England training and the latest casualty was the Worcester and Lions centre Ben Te’o.

Te’o would have provided a muscular midfield presence on the upcoming three-Test tour to South Africa but pulled out on Tuesday after aggravating a thigh injury in the gym

“He got the injury in the Six Nations against France, it is one of those corks and when you've got a cork you've always got damage to the muscle and sometimes they repair and sometimes they don't. He'll be back for the start of the season,” added Jones. “As you see on the tour, 17 players from the Lions and we've got nine available and a lot of those injuries have happened in games not training.”

Ben Te'o will not feature during the tour of South Africa (Getty Images)

England head to Durban on Saturday, where they will be based for the majority of the trip, and fly to the Tests in Johannesburg, Bloemfontein and Cape Town shortly before the matches.

Jones’ theory is that Durban’s climate is closest to that which the team will experience at the next World Cup. The first Test match at Ellis Park in Johannesburg is on 9 June and Jones is keeping his fingers crossed that No.8 Billy Vunipola will be fighting fit by then.

Vunipola managed an hour in Saracens’ Premiership final win over Exeter last Saturday after struggling with a hamstring injury and had his season wrecked by knee trouble and a broken arm. He missed the autumn internationals and the Six Nations but Jones is not going to rush him back too quickly for the Springboks if he is not ready.

“We still have a concern over his hamstring and how fit he is going to be,” Jones added. “It's still a little bit tight so we have just got to be careful with him. He might be right for Saturday week.

“We have gone through a long period without Billy and while he's a great player we have been able to cope without him. We want him back in the side, but if he's not we will work out another way to play.”