England vs Japan: Eddie Jones unleashes ‘special’ Joe Cokanasiga after ringing the changes

The 21-year-old celebrated his birthday on Thursday by winning his first call-up to the England squad

Eddie Jones believes debutant Joe Cokanasiga has something “special” about him as the Bath wing celebrated his 21st birthday with his first England call-up.

The Fiji-born back is one of 11 changes made to the side that will face Japan this Saturday, with England looking to get back to winning ways after the 16-15 defeat by New Zealand last weekend. One of those changes sees Jonny May drop out of the squad despite being England’s top try scorer in 2018, such is the strength in depth that Jones has at his disposal out wide. WIth Chris Ashton joining Cokanasiga on the wing and Jack Nowell deployed at outside centre, Jones has multiple options to fill the 11 and 14 shirts, which means that Cokanasiga will need to prove why he deserves to mix it up with the established wings in squad – and that’s without the injured Anthony Watson available.

But after choosing him Cokanasiga to start on the right wing this weekend, Jones believes the youngster will have no problem doing just that.

“He’s pretty excited,” Jones said on Thursday. “He’s a quite a shy boy but he’s increasingly, in the time that he’s spent with the team, he’s come out of himself.

“There’s something a little bit special about him so we’re looking forward to seeing him play. He’s got power and he’s got pace. The Japanese wingers are very good wingers so he’ll have to be at his best.”

Cokanasiga was initially called up to the England squad last year, but failed to play on the two-Test tour of Argentina due to injury. However, after the consecutive games against South Africa and New Zealand, this weekend’s fixture against Japan offers Jones the chance to rotate his side and hand opportunities to fringe and young players.

An all-new front-row sees Alec Hepburn, Jamie George and Harry Williams start with Charlie Ewels replacing the injured George Kruis to partner Maro Itoje in the second-row. There are further changes in the back-row, with Courtney Lawes coming back into the side at blindside flanker and Zach Mercer starting at No 8, with Mark Wilson switching to the openside.

Danny Care and George Ford start at scrum-half and fly-half respectively, with Nowell partnered at centre with Alex Lozowski.

But if the England team is not a familiar one, the opposition certainly is. Jones spent four years as head coach of Japan, leading them to the 2015 Rugby World Cup and the famous victory over South Africa that has gone down as the biggest shock in the tournament’s history – a story that will now be immortalised through a new film.

Eddie Jones will not find it difficult to put his ties to Japan aside this weekend (Getty)

He holds plenty of warmth for the country through his family too, with his mother’s side of the family hailing from the Land of the Rising Sun while his wife is also Japanese.

Yet he will be able to detach that feeling in order to focus on leading England to victory on Saturday.

“Look, that doesn’t come into it,” Jones said. “You always look back fondly on teams that you coached and players that you coached but you move on, you don’t hang on to those things. Our job on Saturday is to play our best 80 minutes of November, and that’s the only thing I’ve been thinking about.”