England coach Eddie Jones expects hostile reception in Australia

Eddie Jones and his England team boarded a flight to Australia last night, expecting deception and hostility.

Eddie Jones, right, with his defence coach Paul Gustard during the England-Wales match at Twickenham last Sunday.

With the final piece of the puzzle falling into place as Luther Burrell was named to replace injured centre Manu Tuilagi, Eddie Jones and his England rugby team boarded a flight to Australia last night, expecting deception and hostility at every turn.

Burrell, who scored England’s opening try in the 27-13 victory over Wales on Sunday at Twickenham, was the last man dropped from the Red Rose squad for the Rugby World Cup — with former coach Stuart Lancaster controversially preferring Sam Burgess instead.

Jones, too, initially ignored the Northampton Saints centre, leaving him out of the Six Nations triumph, but strike weapon Tuilagi’s injury has given Burrell the chance to resurrect his career against the Wallabies in three Tests in Australia this month.

The 32-man touring squad is now complete — so, too, the circling of wagons. Jones might be returning to the country of his birth — he was born in the unlikely rugby stronghold of Burnie, Tasmania — but he fully expects to be treated like the enemy and, accordingly, has the England team in full siege mentality-mode.

“Playing the second-best team in the world in their own backyard is one of the greatest challenges and you know Australia is a hostile place for an overseas team, you know that everyone’s well co-ordinated in making sure it’s as difficult as possible, which is how it should be … and we’ve got a young team,” Jones told The Australian just prior to his departure.

It will be a series between two teams coached by former Randwick teammates, both of them outsiders in their way — Jones the son of an Australian father and a Japanese mother, Cheika, the son of Lebanese immigrants.

Yet Jones, having coached Australia, has progressed to hold what he now considers “the greatest coaching job in the world” while Chieka was voted 2015 World Coach of the Year.

“I’m sure at some stage we might (go out for a beer) but it’s not on the agenda at the moment,” Jones said.

“At the moment, Cheik’s got smoke and mirrors everywhere. I wouldn’t pay any credence to what he’s saying at the moment. The new, mellow Cheik has a lot of deception about him, so let’s just wait and see.”

Jones has taunted the Wallabies with talk of reviving Bodyline, probably the most evocative word in the lexicon of Anglo-Australian relations, except he has found to his chagrin that his players haven’t heard of Douglas Jardine or Harold Larwood

“The trouble with these English lads is that they’re all too young and don’t remember,” said Jones. Still the message is the same. He’s expecting a fiery series. “Well, it’s Australia and England. Why wouldn’t it be?”

The last time these two sides met, Australia eliminated England from their own World Cup. Still, Jones, who has not tasted defeat in six Tests as England coach, insists there are chinks in the Wallabies’ armour.

“There’s definitely weaknesses in the Australian team, like any team,” he said.

“There’s weaknesses in the All Black team. But you’ve got to be good enough to be able to explore them. The way the Wallabies defend, they give you a very good chance to get at them and that’s something we’ll be looking at very closely.”

For the moment, Jones is playing a straight bat to any hint of controversy.

Hence, news that Melbourne’s AAMI Park still has an unstable surface less than three out from the second Test on June 18, left him unperturbed.

“Well, we’ve been assured by the ARU the surface is right, so that’s all we’re working on.”

And if it’s not? “Knowing the ARU, they’ll fix it, mate. I’m very confident in Bill Pulver to fix it. If he doesn’t fix it, Cheik will fix it. Australians can get most things done. I’m sure they can fix a pitch.”