The England squad’s reward for two victories in the opening rounds of the Six Nations was a brutal training week, starting with set-piece sessions against scrum-savouring Georgia and finishing with a high-intensity run-out at Twickenham in front of 10,000 spectators.
“Never stand still” is the motto of the head coach, Eddie Jones, and while summoning Georgia for a full-on scrum and lineout exchange could be cited as evidence of where the champions intend to target Scotland at Murrayfield on Saturday, the area they know they have to control is the breakdown. The fewer mistakes they make, the greater the chance of an eighth successive Calcutta Cup win.
“We need to improve most at the breakdown,” says the No 8 Nathan Hughes, who is set to return to the side from injury in place of Sam Simmonds, who will miss the next two rounds. “Scotland have threats in their back row over the ball and we have focused on the second and third man in [after a tackle], so we can keep possession for long periods and supply our half-backs.”
Scotland like to play fast and loose but Wales defeated them at their own game on the opening weekend and England also look like confronting them at their strongest point after a victory over Wales at Twickenham that had an air of anticlimax after they started strongly but were defending a lead at the end. Jones held his players accountable in training.
“It was sweaty,” said Hughes after Friday’s session at Twickenham. “The intensity is different now: Eddie wants to make it higher in training so that you feel good in a match. Everyone was breathing heavily out there. No specific targets are set but it is about the number of involvements you get and the speed you get off the ground to give options to the half-backs. This week has been physical and fast and the way we play comes from training.”
Jones returns next weekend to the ground where it all started for him with England with a low-key 15-6 victory two years ago . Every player in the starting line-up that evening is still in the squad, with only some of the replacements, such as Ollie Devoto and Paul Hill, having slipped beneath the waves. His team now does not bear even a passing resemblance to the side that emerged from the ruins of the 2015 World Cup campaign.
England have developed the winning habit under Jones with 24 victories in 25 Tests and are able to take different routes to the line. Last year it was all about the finishers, players coming off the bench to turn a deficit into profit, but against Wales they defended an early lead. Jones’s four-year plan is like a jigsaw puzzle, different pieces slotted into place each match.
A feature this year has been the kicking game. Against Italy and Wales George Ford placed hanging diagonal kicks for his wings to chase in a straight line and England’s opening try against Wales came after Danny Care weighted a kick into the Wales half for Anthony Watson to palm the ball back and Owen Farrell to take advantage of a disorganised defence.
“Kick chase plays are usually where you get gaps in the field,” says the wing Jack Nowell, a replacement in the opening two rounds. “It is a massive part of our game because unstructured play is what you need to work on. The kicking game is massive for us and it is nice to sit back and watch the likes of George and Owen plugging the corners. Scotland have some dangerous players in their back three and we know that, if we kick badly, they will capitalise on it. We have full confidence in our kickers: it is not often there is a bad outcome.”
What Jones has also added is ruthlessness, summed up in Sam Underhill’s tackle on Scott Williams last weekend. The old saying that nice guys finish last – or second in the case of the previous England regime – does not apply to a side which, fuelled by competition for places, is able to think as rationally in the closing five minutes as in the opening five. “There is a lot of depth in this squad,” said Hughes. “We push each other. It’s tough.”
