‘No one thinks we can win’: England rugby coach Eddie Jones says his squad feel no pressure heading into New Zealand showdown
- The quick-witted, sharp tongued coach gives a legendary press conference in Tokyo ahead of his squad’s semi-final
- Jones says his boys are relaxed heading into a game they know they are expected to lose, which they will use to their advantage
“See, there you go. No one thinks we can win. There’s 120 million Japanese people out there whose second team are the All Blacks. So there’s no pressure on us, we’re just going to have a great week, enjoy it and relax, train hard and enjoy this great opportunity. Whereas they got to be thinking about their third World Cup in a row, so that’s got to be a lot of pressure.”
While England barely broke a sweat in the pool matches before dismantling Australia 40-16 in the quarter-finals, Jones was clearly revelling in the role of the underdog. “It’s the most exciting week of the rugby calendar,” he said. “The best four teams are playing against each other and we get to play one of the greatest teams ever shooting for a three-peat, which has never been done.”
Jones, who became the first Australian-born head coach to defeat his native country when England beat the Wallabies, is no stranger to big-game pressure. He was coach of Australia in 2003 when they lost in the World Cup finals to England and was also an assistant on the victorious South African team in 2007 while leading Japan to a seminal victory at the 2015 event over those same Springboks. But while his resume is full of games on the biggest stage, his English charges are as green as it gets in big matches, particular in comparison with their much more accomplished opponents.
“In terms of pressure and struggling to handle the platform, if you look at what we have done as a team over the last four years, we have had some great wins and some significant losses. Players have learned how to work together and there is a togetherness in the team that is going to carry them through difficult periods in the game. In the semi-final there is going to be big moments in the game that will decide the match and I think we are equipped to handle those.”
