Australia v England: Gamesmanship allegations all round

Eddie Jones has accused All Blacks coach Steve Hansen of gamesmanship for claiming he had bullied Michael Cheika.

Eddie Jones retunrs to his old home ground of Coogee Oval as coach of England.

Eddie Jones has accused All Blacks coach Steve Hansen of gamesmanship for claiming he had bullied Wallabies mentor Michael Cheika.

Hansen said Cheika had allowed Jones to bully him in the media and it had contributed to England winning the Test series against the Wallabies.

“Steve’s got a Rugby Championship coming up,” Jones said of Hansen’s comments.

Asked whether Hansen’s remarks were tactical, Jones simply nodded his head. When pressed on the issue, Jones denied he had set out to win a war of words with Cheika, who has refused to engage in any off-field banter.

“I haven’t tried to win a war of words,” Jones said. “Look, I’m a coach. You guys ask me questions. I give you answers and you guys decide whether it’s mind games or whether I’m being a bully or whether I’m trying to be clever and whether I’m just an idiot.

“You decide that, not me. I don’t decide that. I just try to answer the questions truthfully and honestly.”

After winning the first two Tests in Brisbane and Melbourne, Jones, a former Wallabies coach, is determined to clean-sweep the series in Sydney on Saturday night to consolidate England’s position at No 2 in the world rankings.

Jones invited rugby league legend Andrew Johns to England training in Sydney yesterday to impart his knowledge of attacking play, particularly to playmakers Owen Farrell and George Ford.

“I’ve always admired his skills as a player,” Jones said of Johns. “He has a lot of knowledge. A lot he can teach people. We had been chatting for a while about the possibility of him coming in and doing a little bit of work.

“Today was the ideal day. We had quite a bit of down time in training. Just about detail of attacking. Precise detail of attacking. The things he is saying he said in a different voice in a different way that stimulates learning.

“We have two outstanding young number 10s in Owen Farrell and George Ford and we want them to keep learning. Guys like Andrew Johns touched the ball 50 or 60 times in a game. They have to know when to drift, know when to be straight, know when to take a little unders line, how you use your eyes, where you position your hands.

“For those guys to have that lesson is invaluable. They will remember it the rest of their life.”

England are undefeated under Jones, having won the Six Nations and a historic series against the Wallabies in Australia.

But Jones warned England were yet to produce their best rugby. “We want to play our best 80 this week,” Jones said. “Attack wise we were reasonable in the first Test. Defensively, we were poor. Set-piece we were good at the lineout, average at the scrum in the first Test.

“Second Test our scrum was good. Lineout was average. Defence was outstanding. Attack was almost non-existent.

“We’d like to put together our best 80 because we still haven’t seen the best of this team. We are on a learning curve and we want to keep improving.”