Northern Edition

Select Edition

Northern Northern
Southern Southern
Global Global
New Zealand New Zealand
France France

Irish legend tips Eddie Jones' England to win the World Cup

Itoje has become one of England's genuinely world class players. (Photo by Mike Hewitt/Getty Images)

Ireland legend Brian O’Driscoll is tipping Eddie Jones’ England to win the World Cup, adding that he believes Ireland’s recent slump can be traced to Joe Schmidt’s decision late last year to announce he will quit as head coach after the tournament in Japan.

ADVERTISEMENT

The Land Rover ambassador said that England’s pre-tournament form, which includes last Saturday’s record-breaking win over Ireland at Twickenham, suggested they are the team to beat in Japan while Schmidt’s misfiring side are in desperate need of momentum from their remaining warm-up matches, starting with Wales in Cardiff on Saturday.

“I believe we could have five or six different winners of the World Cup, but if it was put to me right now to pick one team I think England are probably a team I would fancy for it,” said O’Driscoll, Ireland’s most capped player who played at the 1999, 2003, 2007 and 2011 tournaments. 

“They are gearing up brilliantly. They have had a good run of form in 2019, some really impressive displays, and I feel they have the game and the versatility of game to be able to cope with whatever is thrown at them. 

“If they continue playing like some of their warm-up matches, not many teams will be able to cope with them. So if I was to pick one team right now I’m thinking them, but so much can change in the lead-up to this World Cup.”

(Continue reading below…)

Video Spacer

Changing tack to discuss Ireland’s struggles in 2019 following a 2018 where they won the Grand Slam, beat Australia in a Test series down under and then defeated the All Blacks in Dublin, O’Driscoll hinted that the end-of-year announcement that Schmidt will leave after the World Cup and will be replaced by assistant Andy Farrell has had an effect.  

“It is probably no coincidence that performance has slumped a little bit since Joe Schmidt announced he wouldn’t be continuing in his post after the World Cup. Human instinct allows the brain to wonder about what might happen in the future and I’m sure it has impacted in some capacity. 

ADVERTISEMENT

“I don’t know what way you could have worked around it because you have a future plan, but I don’t think the players will be thinking they need to give Joe a proper send-off. They will be thinking more selfishly for themselves about this is potentially a once in a lifetime opportunity.”

WATCH: The RugbyPass stadium guide to where England will play in Tokyo

Video Spacer
ADVERTISEMENT

LIVE

{{item.title}}

Trending on RugbyPass

Comments

0 Comments
Be the first to comment...

Join free and tell us what you really think!

Sign up for free
ADVERTISEMENT

Latest Features

Comments on RugbyPass

J
JW 4 hours ago
'Let's not sugarcoat it': Former All Black's urgent call to protect eligibility rules

Yep, no one knows what will happen. Thing is I think (this is me arguing a point here not a random debate with this one) they're better off trialing it now in a controlled environment than waiting to open it up in a knee jerk style reaction to a crumbling organtization and team. They can always stop it again.


The principle idea is that why would players leave just because the door is ajar?


BBBR decides to go but is not good enough to retain the jersey after doing it. NZ no longer need to do what I suggest by paying him to get back upto speed. That is solely a concept of a body that needs to do what I call pick and stick wth players. NZR can't hold onto everyone so they have to choose their BBBRs and if that player comes back from a sabbatical under par it's a priority to get him upto speed as fast as possible because half of his competition has been let go overseas because they can't hold onto them all. Changing eligibility removes that dilemma, if a BBBR isn't playing well you can be assured that someone else is (well the idea is that you can be more assured than if you only selected from domestic players).


So if someone decides they want to go overseas, they better do it with an org than is going to help improve them, otherwise theyre still basically as ineligible as if they would have been scorning a NZ Super side that would have given them the best chance to be an All Black.

147 Go to comments
LONG READ
LONG READ What is the future of rugby in 2025? What is the future of rugby in 2025?
Search