Eddie Jones has begun throwing verbal grenades and Joe Schmidt has resisted the temptation to respond. It can only mean one thing, Six Nations season is upon us.
On this week's World in Union, the weekly Balls.ie rugby show getting an outside perspective on the sport, Charlie Morgan of the Daily Telegraph joined us to discuss Eddie Jones recent comments to discuss the English coach and his recent comments.
Speaking prior to Saturday's game, Jones cited winger Jack Nowell as "definitely an option" to play as a flanker or extra-forward. As Morgan explained, England have experimented with the Exeter winger in the past.
Jack Nowell, Eddie Jones has used him previously in the Italy game, 'no ruckgate.' He brought on Jack Nowell for Jonny May I think. He just basically had him shadowing the scrum-half just to make those runs around the fringes that he is so good at. He really likes the breakdown work that Jack Nowell gets through both in attack and defence.
Whenever Nowell is playing for England he is off his wing from set moves burrowing as either a carrier or being that first man hitting the breakdown. More it was a commentary on Jack Nowell the rugby player.
However, Morgan felt there was actually an ulterior motive behind the claim. It distracted from issues elsewhere.
"Just a classic curveball really. If the column inches were about that they were not about the fact that England probably don't know what their best midfield is. They still have some teething problems in the back-row. At scrum-half, they picked a guy who is very talented but for some reason, Eddie Jones hasn't seen fit to blood him before now.
"So less than a year out from Rugby World Cup 2019 Dan Robson remains uncapped. That kind of reflects that maybe the planning has not been so joined up."
You can watch the full show here, or listen to it here and on all good podcast services.
