Jamie George has told England to expect the unexpected when they face a Japan side coached by former Red Rose boss Eddie Jones.
Sunday’s match will be the first time since he was sacked by England in 2022 that veteran Australian boss Jones will face the team he coached for seven years at their Twickenham headquarters.
England will be commanding favourites to end their five-game losing streak against a Japan side ranked 13th in the world.
Japan have never beaten England but in Jones’s first spell in charge they produced one of the all-time great upsets by defeating South Africa at the 2015 World Cup.
England captain George is well aware of Jones’s motivational skills, with the 34-year-old hooker telling a pre-match press conference: “Eddie’s a master at getting teams up for big games and is going to have Japan as well prepared as he possibly can… We’re going to expect the unexpected because that’s the sort of innovative coach that Eddie is.”
Jones coached the Barbarians against a World XV at Twickenham last year but Sunday will be his first match against England at the southwest London ground since a poor run of results led the Rugby Football Union to dismiss the 64-year-old in 2022.
The build-up to this weekend’s match has been overshadowed by allegations concerning Jones’s management style when in charge of England, with former Test scrum-half Danny Care saying he created a “toxic environment” that meant “everyone was bloody terrified of him”.
Jones has yet to respond publicly to the criticism, although the likes of former England wing Jonny May have defended his methods.
And for all the ongoing debate, Jones guided an England side knocked out in the first round of a 2015 World Cup on home soil all the way to the final in Japan four years later before they were denied rugby union’s ultimate prize by an outstanding South Africa team.
Jones also boats the highest win ratio of any England coach, with 73 percent from 81 Tests.
‘Respect’
“Eddie did a huge amount and I respect him massively as a coach,” said George. “Some of the things he achieved with the England team were fantastic.”
England have endured a disappointing November series, with a trio of Twickenham defeats by New Zealand (24-22), Australia (42-37) and back-to-back world champions South Africa (29-20) heading into their last game of 2024.
To make matters worse, England have had chances to win all three of those games against the southern hemisphere giants only to fall short in the final quarter.
“We are as frustrated as anyone in terms of the results we’ve had,” said George. “You take the Australia game out and there are large parts of the New Zealand and South Africa performances that were very good.
“We didn’t win but we gave ourselves opportunities to win both of those games.
He added: “It’s very important for us to deliver results to the fans because they’ve been very loyal to us. It’s time for us to step up and do that.”
