Eddie Jones urges England to hammer Italy in Rome

Duncan Bech 04:19 08/02/2016
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  • Looking forward: Eddie Jones.

    Eddie Jones has urged England to build momentum behind their Six Nations quest by giving Italy a “good hiding” in Rome.

    The Jones era was launched with a 15-9 victory over Scotland at Murrayfield on Saturday that has given the new regime breathing space ahead of the next assignment against an Azzurri team narrowly beaten by France.

    After the Calcutta Cup had been retained for an eighth year, Jones joked: “I don’t know what the cup’s called in Italy – The Panini Cup? We’ll win it” and England’s new head coach has left little doubt over his objective at Stadio Olimpico.

    “We control our own destiny. We want to go to Rome and smack Italy,” Jones said. “I’ve already said to the boys that’s our aim – to go out there and give them a good hiding. Italy are going to be tough because they should have beaten France, but that’s our aim.”

    Spearheading the assault on Rome will be Billy Vunipola, who was named man of the match after rampaging across Murrayfield and was then endorsed by Jones as a player with the potential to become the best number eight in the game.

    Vunipola is one of England’s three vice-captains in support of Dylan Hartley and on the evidence of one match, he is to have a prominent role for the foreseeable future.

    “I tell Billy every day how good he can be. Every player needs to have a dream. As a coach one of your jobs is to give them dreams,” Jones said. “I don’t want him to be the best number eight in the Premiership, I want him to be the best number eight in the world. And he can do that.”

    Jones views the victory in Edinburgh as a cathartic moment for those players haunted by England’s failure to advance from the pool stage of last year’s World Cup.

    “It’s virtually the same group of players that went through that tournament, which wasn’t a good experience,” he said. “A couple of boys were talking about it the other night. At the end of the Australian game they were looking and they just couldn’t believe what had happened. That’s a pretty difficult situation.

    “To recover and then to come out in the space of two weeks together and put out that sort of collective performance….”

    Jones revealed that Joe Launchbury was able to play only 45 minutes after suffering from diarrhoea overnight.

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