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- Eddie Jones side-stepped a question about his relationship with Steve Borthwick
- The wily Australian is preparing for a first match against his former apprentice
- Borthwick has the chance to show what he learned in years working under Jones
No shots fired. Eddie Jones was on best behaviour on Thursday. Back in the city where he conjured a spying story to unsettle the All Blacks in 2019, the notorious mischief-maker was a model of diplomacy and restraint.
A routine request on behalf of this newspaper for a response to England’s selection was met with a sharp retort, in a room full of Japanese media and cameras. ‘Whatever I say to you is going to end up as a headline in the Daily Mail,’ quipped Jones – who then went out of his way to ensure quite the opposite.
‘It is an excellent team,’ he added. ‘Great selections.’ How jarringly civil. A follow-up question about his relationship with Steve Borthwick – England’s head coach – prompted a deft Jones side-step and more tame platitudes.
The wily Australian was not in trademark agenda-setting or mind-games mode. Maybe Borthwick stole his thunder by surprisingly naming his side early while Jones and Japan were hidden away in the far south. Or maybe Jones was content to know that he had made his former assistant behave in an out-of-character way – and that was a win in itself.
In a game which is looming as an away banker, this is the area of intrigue; master against pupil. It is ‘fast Eddie’ against the man who has been dubbed ‘Teddie’, as in tall Eddie.
Wily Eddie Jones is preparing for his first clash against his old apprentice, Steve Borthwick
This is Borthwick’s chance to prove what he learned from their five-year coaching bond and work together at Saracens
It is their first meeting as adversaries, after Jones’s Wallabies didn’t do well enough to earn a shot at England in the World Cup last autumn. Their pool-stage exit cleared the path for Jones’s second coming in these parts.
After a five-year coaching alliance and previous work together at Saracens, this is the momentous occasion when the younger man will seek to prove how much he has learned and developed. At the same time, the canny veteran will want to show that he still has the wisdom and well-worn instincts to make a mockery of apparent lost causes.
Borthwick admitted that he and his familiar counterpart would have no contact before game – but they did meet here for coffee and rugby chat when the England head coach was on a recce before the Six Nations. There is mutual respect, but no sense of a friendship or deeper bond which extends beyond the confines of their shared profession.
Borthwick was the one who Eddie’s infamous intensity couldn’t put off. He was the one who stayed and absorbed all the demands. Other assistants came and went, citing the stress of living up to the expectations of the man in charge, but Borthwick kept going.
When asked earlier this week about memories of his time with Japan, there was a fleeting hint of the extreme work-load when he said: ‘There were a few sessions at 5am which were memorable.’
Warren Gatland lifted the lid on what Borthwick had to endure when he explained how his forwards coach on the 2017 Lions tour had to divide his time between duties in New Zealand and his day-job with a team thousands of miles away in Argentina.
‘During the tour, Jones asked him to review England’s games on their tour of Argentina at the same time and provide feedback to him despite the 16-hour time difference,’ he told the Telegraph.
‘He ended up working night and day to get all the things that he had to do completed. It was really tough. I felt for him. What struck me was the fact that he never uttered a word of complaint but just got on with it, night after night.’
England are gearing up for a clash with Japan on Saturday, the first time Jones and Borthwick have faced each other
Borthwick was a man on a mission to become a head coach under Jones and worked tirelessly
This was a man on a mission to be a head coach, so he had the singular focus and resilience to just push through the gruelling apprenticeship. Borthwick is a different character to Eddie – not the jokey raconteur and mischief-maker – quite the opposite. But he shares the same relentless dedication and hunger to achieve, however much demand it puts on him.
His encounter with Jones is arguably a more fascinating, intriguing prospect than the on-field contest which awaits. In truth, a lot of the low-key rhetoric from Jones on Thursday conveyed a sense that he can see writing on the wall. This is the launch of his second stint in charge of Japan and after what happened against South Africa in Brighton in 2015, more miracles will be expected. But not this weekend. A young home team are there for the taking.
He will fire shots again another time. There will be mind-games to come from Jones, but he must have realised that they would be hollow this week. ‘We will take them to the last moment,’ he said. ‘I have a good feeling in my bones.’ It was his only bullish statement. But it is not founded on any sporting logic. England should win by 20 on Saturday.
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