Pragmatic and bullish but yet to fully make his mark,the coach has had a sterling start to the Six Nations but demands more when England meet IrelandThere was considerable anticipation in the buildup to this year’s championship over how Eddie Jones’s England would shape up. It did not particularly matter who the opposition were; the English rugby fan just wanted to see the team play. Now the first couple of hurdles have been cleared effectively – at times nearly impressively the energies are shifting, and the anticipation levels remain tall as a result.
For now the rhetoric has started to include the delicate notion of a two-speed Six Nations. “That was Scotland and Italy, or the line goes; “How will Jones’s England fare against Ireland,the champions?” is the new chorus. Then it will be top-five-in-the-world Wales, who won so memorably the final time the two met. And so we can expect the escalation to continue on to the tour of Jones’s native Australia in the summer.
Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com