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'Who is he? Who is he? I don't know mate, you'll have to tell me'

(Photo by Bradley Kanaris/The RFU Collection via Getty Images)

England boss Eddie Jones claims he has never heard of Bradley Stubbs, the self-proclaimed ‘Coach Whisperer’ who says he has become too mellow since they worked together six years ago. Stubbs has made a name for himself in Australian sport as a guru of the subconscious mind, focused on reading energy and what he calls the science of belief.

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He has worked with title-winning domestic football coaches across codes, including Graham Arnold, Trent Robinson and Michael Cheika. His phrase “expect to win – done, done, done” was well known when Kevin Walters introduced him to the Queensland State of Origin camp in 2019.

Stubbs says he was hired by the RFU in 2016 as one of Jones’ first consultants and helped the former Wallabies mentor go on the attack on the field and in the press during their successful tour of Australia after arriving as grand slam champions.

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England have since crashed back to ground ahead of the next year’s 2023 World Cup, winning just two of their five recent Guinness Six Nations Tests and seeing an eight-game winning streak against the Wallabies ended in Perth last Saturday.

“I love the crazy, intense Eddie because that is when he f***ing wins,” Stubbs told The Times. “What I’m saying is, ‘Eddie, go back to what you were… back in 2016 it was attack, attack, attack. He has mellowed out.”

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The England coach, though, on Thursday distanced himself from the colourful sidenote to Saturday’s second Test in Brisbane against the Wallabies. “Who is he? Who is he? I don’t know mate, you’ll have to tell me,” when asked his opinion of Stubbs’ comments. “Ask him to come around and see me… I don’t know who you’re talking about mate.”

Jones did agree his side needed more on-field punch, with England set to debut Australian-raised outside centre Guy Porter and winger Tommy Freeman while promoting half-back Jack van Poortvliet. 

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J
JW 48 minutes ago
Why England's defence of the realm has crumbled without Felix Jones

This piece is nothing more than the result of revisionist fancy of Northern Hemisphere rugby fans. Seeing what they want to see, helped but some surprisingly good results and a desire to get excited about doing something well.


I went back through the 6N highlights and sure enough in every English win I remembered seeing these exact holes on the inside, that are supposedly the fallout out of a Felix Jones system breaking down in the hands of some replacement. Every time the commentators mentioned England being targeted up the seam/around the ruck or whatever. Each game had a try scored on the inside of the blitz, no doubt it was a theme throughout all of their games. Will Jordan specifically says that Holland had design that move to target space he saw during their home series win.


Well I'm here to tell you they were the same holes in a Felix Jones system being built as well. This woe is now sentiment has got to stop. The game is on a high, these games have been fantastic! It is Englands attack that has seen their stocks increase this year, and no doubt that is what SB told him was the teams priority. Or it's simply science, with Englands elite players having worked towards a new player welfare and management system, as part of new partnership with the ERU, that's dictating what the players can and can't put their bodies through.


The only bit of truth in this article is that Felix is not there to work on fixing his defence. England threw away another good chance of winning in the weekend when they froze all enterprise under pressure when no longer playing attacking footy for the second half. That mindset helped (or not helped if you like) of course by all this knee jerk, red brained criticism.

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