EDDIE JONES HAS acknowledged the contribution of Stuart Lancaster to England’s success ahead of their bid for back-to-back Six Nations Grand Slams against Ireland in Dublin on Saturday.
After Lancaster oversaw a disappointing 2015 World Cup campaign on home turf, he was replaced as England head coach by Jones. England are still undefeated under the Australian and are chasing a record-breaking 19th consecutive win this weekend at the Aviva Stadium.
Jones has been lauded for his results since taking charge of England, but this afternoon he paid tribute to his predecessor, who’s now working as a senior coach with Leinster.
“The guy I think should get a lot of credit for the team’s success is Stuart Lancaster,” Jones said. “He was the guy that brought this team through, went through some hard yards with them, most of the players are still the same.
“I know he’s batting on the other side now with Leinster, so I don’t know (who) he’s barracking for on Saturday!”
In spite of their flawless campaign so far, Jones insists there’s still more to come from England. However, he’s not expecting anything easy from an Ireland side whose Six Nations hopes ended with last weekend’s defeat to Wales.
“Most teams in the Six Nations have one big performance. We’ve seen that from all the teams,” said the former Australia and Japan head coach.
“We are anticipating Ireland to be at their best, particularly because they’ve got nothing to fear, which always liberates a team. But when I said ‘most teams’, we are not ‘most teams’. We are a different team, we’ve shown that, and we are ready to take it to another level on Saturday.
“To go from where we are to greatness takes another step of endeavour. It takes greater focus, it takes greater persistence, it takes greater emotional output.
“It is like climbing up a mountain — every time you go to another level of the mountain it becomes more unstable. The ground becomes more unstable, your ears hurt, your nose hurts. It is exactly the same when you are climbing the ladder of success — everything becomes a bit harder.
“And sometimes you have got to just stop and say, ‘Right, this is what is ahead of us’. And probably we weren’t very good at that. In retrospect, that’s my fault. We have done that and I think the players have understood the challenges ahead and re-equipped for the challenges ahead.”
Jones added: “Ireland don’t have to worry about failing. It’s a winner-takes-all for them and that makes them even more dangerous. They are going to come out all guns blazing.
“They were favourites for the competition and now they are out of it, so we are anticipating a tough encounter.”
