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Eddie Jones turns to US Navy SEALs as he plots World Cup campaign

By PA
Eddie Jones has seen a plethora of young England players pass through in his seven years in charge (Photo by Andrew Matthews/PA Images via Getty Images)

Eddie Jones will shape England’s approach to next year’s World Cup inspired by the level of planning that went into the climatic stage of the Navy SEALs’ hunt for Osama bin Laden.

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Earlier this month Jones spent two days with the US Navy’s elite fighting force at their base in San Diego where he learnt how they dealt with an immediate setback in the 2011 mission named ‘Operation Neptune Spear’, which ended with the Al-Qaeda leader being killed.

England’s head coach insists the ability to adapt to a game that is more volatile then ever because of HIAs, yellow cards and injuries is now critical and he will use this knowledge to prepare for the upcoming autumn campaign as the World Cup looms on the horizon.

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“I was lucky enough to spend a couple of days with the Navy SEALs and understand how can we prepare the players better to cope with the unexpected. If we train better, we prepare them better,” Jones said.

“You know the Osama thing… they practised that whole project for 12 months for 38 minutes of work. And the first thing they did was wrong. The helicopter hit the wires.

“They had 12 months to prepare, went through it religiously and they still get something wrong, but then they were able to cope with it and get it done within 38 minutes.

“So you look at the analogy with us now, 12 months to the World Cup and we’re playing a game that’s got 35 minutes ball in play.

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“The ability to dress-rehearse, prepare the players for what’s coming up, whether it’s the first round, second round, third round, whatever it is, is the opportunity going forward.”

While the time with the US special forces has provided Jones with ideas to help England over the next year, it was the capricious nature of the Rugby Championship clinched by New Zealand on Saturday that illustrated the current landscape on the field.

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“We’ve got these extremes at the moment. We want to understand how we play rugby at our best, with our players, and be able to play that game,” Jones said.

“But we need to be able to adapt to a different game. Probably 25 per cent is uncontrollable through sin-bins, HIAs and uneven numbers.

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“The game becomes completely different so we need to be able to adapt from our game to the game that’s going to be played at that time.

“That’s hard to do and there aren’t too many teams in the world who can do it. In fact, I can’t name one at the moment. So there’s a great opportunity for us.”

Jones has named a 36-man training squad for a three-day camp starting on Sunday with England opening the autumn against Argentina at Twickenham on November 6.

Danny Care is missing after being told to rebuild his form at Harlequins following a disappointing tour to Australia in July, while prop Kyle Sinckler and centre Henry Slade have been left to continue their comebacks from injury at their respective clubs Bristol and Exeter.

Sam Simmonds is present, however, after he missed out against the Wallabies because of a hip issue and Jones believes the Exeter number eight will be available for World Cup selection despite signing a deal to join Montpellier for next season.

England do not pick overseas-based players but the apparent green light for Simmonds to appear at France 2023 could encourage other players considering a move to France to follow suit.

“As far as I know, the rule is that if you are contracted to an English club and you finish the season with that club and you haven’t signed a contract that starts before the World Cup then you are eligible to play for England,” Jones said.

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Comments

2 Comments
R
Robert 769 days ago

Nice one steady, if there is a gimmick to be had your the man.

J
Jamie 2 770 days ago

Good on you Eddie, featuring the US Navy Seals as providing the inspiration for developing England's 2023 RWC rugby campaign is thinking outside the square, or is it. Maybe Eddie should also read about the many snafu's the special forces have found themselves in as well, but this is an excellent bit of Eddie Jones self promotion for the next years RWC, well done!.

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Flankly 1 hour ago
'Absolute madness': Clive Woodward rips into Borthwick in wake of NZ loss

Borthwick is supposed to be the archetypical conservative coach, the guy that might not deliver a sparkling, high-risk attacking style, but whose teams execute the basics flawlessly. And that's OK, because it can be really hard to beat teams that are rock solid and consistent in the rugby equivalent of "blocking and tackling".


But this is why the performance against NZ is hard to defend. You can forgive a conservative, back-to-basics team for failing to score tons of tries, because teams like that make up for it with reliability in the simple things. They can defend well, apply territorial pressure, win the set piece battles, and take their scoring chances with metronomic goal kicking, maul tries and pick-and-go goal line attacks.


The reason why the English rugby administrators should be on high alert is not that the English team looked unable to score tries, but that they were repeatedly unable to close out a game by executing basic, coachable skills. Regardless of how they got to the point of being in control of their destiny, they did get to that point. All that was needed was to be world class at things that require more training than talent. But that training was apparently missing, and the finger has to point at the coach.


Borthwick has been in the job for nearly two years, a period that includes two 6N programs and an RWC campaign. So where are the solid foundations that he has been building?

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Nickers 1 hour ago
Scott Robertson responds to criticism over All Blacks' handling errors

Very poor understanding of what's going on and 0 ability to read. When I say playing behind the gain line you take this to mean all off-loads and site times we are playing in front of the gain line???


Every time we play a lot of rugby behind the gain line (for clarity, meaning trying to build an attack and use width without front foot ball 5m+ behind the most recent breakdown) we go backwards and turn the ball over in some way. Every time a player is tackled behind the most recent breakdown you need more and more people to clear out because your forwards have to go back around the corner, whereas opposition players can keep moving forward. Eventually you run out of either players to clear out or players to pass to and the result in a big net loss of territory and often a turnover. You may have witnessed that 20+ times in the game against England. This is a particularly dumb idea inside your own 40m which is where, for some reason, we are most likely to employ it.


The very best ABs teams never built an identity around attacking from poor positions. The DC era team was known for being the team that kicked the most. To engineer field position and apply pressure, and create broken play to counter attack. This current team is not differentiating between when a defence has lost it's structure and there are opportunities, and when they are completely set and there is nothing on. The reason they are going for 30 minute + periods in every game without scoring a single point, even against Japan and a poor Australian team, is because they are playing most of their rugby on the back foot in the wrong half.

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Nickers 1 hour ago
Scott Robertson responds to criticism over All Blacks' handling errors

I thought we made a lot of progress against that type of defence by the WC last year. Lots of direct running and punching holes rather than using width. Against that type of defence I think you have to be looking to kick on first phase when you have front foot ball which we did relatively successfully. We are playing a lot of rugby behind the gain line at the moment. They are looking for those little interchanges for soft shoulders and fast ball or off loads but it regularly turns into them battering away with slow ball and going backwards, then putting in a very rushed kick under huge pressure.


JB brought that dimension when he first moved into 12 a couple of years ago but he's definitely not been at his best this year. I don't know if it is because he is being asked to play a narrow role, or carrying a niggle or two, but he does not look confident to me. He had that clean break on the weekend and stood there like he was a prop who found himself in open space and didn't know what to do with the ball. He is still a good first phase ball carrier though, they use him a lot off the line out to set up fast clean ball, but I don't think anyone is particularly clear on what they are supposed to do at that point. He was used really successfully as a second playmaker last year but I don't think he's been at that role once this year. He is a triple threat player but playing a very 1 dimensional role at the moment. He and Reiko have been absolutely rock solid on defence which is why I don't think there will be too much experimentation or changes there.

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