Eddie Jones oozes confidence of man with a plan to beat All Blacks
The closer it gets, the more you feel that something epic is upon us.
The closer it gets, the more you feel that something epic is upon us. Every player is busy trying to convince themselves and the world that they are holding it together, though that cannot be so easy when Eddie Jones and Steve Hansen, the head coaches, are exchanging earnest opinion about which team are under greater pressure.
Finally, on Thursday, the two ringmasters traded team selections and the whole flying circus stopped briefly while we paused to consider the monumental significance of the fact that one of the three Fabulous Barrett Boys — as the All Black brothers could be known — is going to try something different in Yokohama on Saturday and instead of playing lock, he is going to perform at blindside flanker.
The tactical chess around these teams is compelling. Jones and Hansen have made such striking selection changes that whichever way you choose to present this England-New Zealand World Cup semi-final, it is a clash of the super-coaches.
It is but the semi-final; there is one hurdle to come. Nevertheless, when Jones talked on Thursday about changing the course of history, it felt for him and England like the culmination of four years’ work. For the All Blacks, conversely, it feels a bit like business as usual.
Jones’s decision to return to a 10-12 partnership of George Ford and Owen Farrell meanwhile felt like a statement of significance. However, when the All Blacks came out with the selection that had Scott Barrett, a second-row forward, playing at blindside flanker, it was a small tweak that seemed to have a ripple effect way beyond the banality of a changed shirt number.
Among many things, it tells us that the All Blacks feel they can conquer England at the lineout. England, meanwhile, have set out their stall to conquer the last 20 minutes. Jones made the intriguing revelation that England had picked the eight for their bench before they picked the starting XV — and there is method aplenty in all this madness.
If there is one reference point that anchors this game, it is Twickenham 11 months ago, the only time the sides have met since November 2014 and the day that New Zealand edged it by a single point.
Significant in that game was the England lineout, normally a staple of healthy possession, which the All Blacks sabotaged brilliantly. England lost five of their own throws that day, a disintegration that worsened from the 52nd minute when Scott Barrett was introduced off the bench — to play blindside. At that point, Hansen had four elite lineout jumpers from which to choose — Brodie Retallick and Sam Whitelock in the second row, Kieran Read and Barrett in the backrow. It is that quartet that Hansen is starting on Saturday.
Was he influenced by Twickenham last year? “A wee bit,” he replied, with an overload of Kiwi understatement.
That makes it four jumpers versus England’s two locks: Maro Itoje and Courtney Lawes. Tom Curry, the blindside, has been trained up to be England’s third lineout option but he has not yet been a conspicuous success.
What could Jones do to respond? He had three options. One was to ape the All Blacks’ selection, bring in George Kruis at lock and play Lawes at blindside. This would have given England a proper third jumper. Option not taken.
Alternatively, he could have started Kruis at lock instead of Lawes. Kruis is known as the lineout guru, the thinking man’s lock forward, the best man for unpicking the opposition lineout and for out-thinking the All Blacks on England’s own throw. That option was declined too.
The third option was to do nothing, make no changes, stick with Lawes and Itoje at lock, and back England’s lineout to survive the All Black attack — and that is where England are.
Jones dismissed the danger. “It’s only one part of the game,” he said. “They might have a strength in that area. You don’t know how many lineouts there are going to be in the game.”
It is not quite so straightforward, of course. Bring in Barrett and take out Sam Cane and the Kiwis have lost their No 1 breakdown specialist. In Curry and Sam Underhill, England have two of those. Jones has no intention of compromising these strengths. Advantage England?
Yet by dropping Cane, New Zealand have taken out the one member of their pack who is not a comfortable ball-handler — and replaced him with another who very much is. Continuity is everything to the All Blacks and now they have every player able to play that game.
Back to November 10 last year. The All Blacks edged one point ahead in the second half through two kicks from Beauden Barrett, having trailed 15-10 at halftime. For the whole of that second half, England were unable to register a score of any kind.
This was a very All Black ending. They are a brilliant second-half team. More specifically, they are a great final-quarter team. At the 2015 World Cup, the aggregate score for the final 20 minutes of the seven games they played was 94-15 and they conceded only one try.
How so? Partly their conditioning. Partly self-belief. Above all, it is because they have such strength in depth that their bench rarely looks anything like your second-choicers. It is some luxury that the All Blacks can enjoy when they are able to select Sonny Bill Williams on their bench.
Both coaches talked bench on Thursday.
“The bench is massive,” Hansen said. “We are going to have go deep into the game.”
“The most crucial stage of this game,” Jones said, “is going to be the second 20 minutes of the second half, where the game’s going to be won or lost. We’ve been particularly diligent in selecting our team to take that into consideration.”
That statement is particularly worthy of analysis. This England bench is not full of the kind of big, powerful ball-handling athletes that would suit your classic “game-changer” or “game-breaker” mould. It looks more like a bench to close down the final quarter of a game rather than to come from behind.
Jones clearly has a specific plan for the replacements. At this stage of a tournament, you really feel him coming into his own. He has a plan for everything.
It is up to the players to see that they work. There is so little between these two teams, it is down to execution. It is a lot to do with their coaches’ selections and tactics.
Like last week, this is the biggest game in Jones’s four years with England. Like last week, he is confident. This time though he comes into the match as the underdog and rightly so.
At what point, he was asked, did you think you had a group to beat the All Blacks? “The first day I got the job in 2015,” he said. “I wouldn’t have taken the job if I didn’t think we could be the best in the world.”
Now, at last, we find out if they can.
Why half of all transfers end in tears
The curious thing about transfers is that despite the enormous amount of money spent on them, many simply just don’t work out.
Indian cricketers’ wives face tour ban after thrashing in Australia
The BCCI has continued its finger-pointing following India’s Border-Gavaskar Trophy loss to Australia, with wives, girlfriends and children set to be prohibited from future tours because they are a distraction to its Test stars.