Eddie Jones has claimed that England have been spied on ahead of their World Cup semi-final against New Zealand on Saturday. Jones also sought to turn up the heat on the All Blacks, who are bidding for a third straight World Cup win, by claiming England have nothing to lose and that New Zealand will be feeling the pressure.
Jones believes that his squad’s training session in Tokyo Bay on Tuesday was filmed from a nearby high-rise apartment block and joked that England had someone spying on the All Blacks in response.
In the buildup to last autumn’s meeting with the All Blacks, Jones revealed he had asked the England players who had toured New Zealand with the British & Irish Lions to compile dossiers on their opponents. When asked if he would be revisiting them, Jones instead revealed the suspected security breach. “So you were the bloke up in the apartment block today filming,” he said.
He continued: “There was definitely someone in the apartment block filming but it might have been a Japanese fan. I don’t care mate. We have got someone there at [New Zealand training] now. Everyone knows what everyone does so there are no surprises in world rugby any more. That’s the great thing about the game, you just have to be good enough on the day.”
England are this week training at Arcs Urayasu Park, 15 minutes from their hotel, which overlooks Disneyland. Jones chose that hotel, rather than the one where England were based in the heart of Tokyo earlier in the tournament, but it is a place well-known to New Zealand. The All Blacks were based in the same hotel 12 months ago for their fixtures against Australia and Japan.
Jones admitted that he has conducted spying missions in the past but claimed he has not done so since 2001, and he would not say on which team. “You just don’t need to do it any more, you can see everything,” he said. “You can watch everyone’s training on YouTube. There’s no value in doing that sort of thing, absolutely zero. We knew [we were being filmed] from the start, it doesn’t change anything, we love it.”
England will contest their first World Cup semi-final in 12 years on Saturday against a New Zealand side who have not lost a World Cup match since 2007. Jones has recently claimed New Zealand are the greatest team in sporting history but insisted that they are beatable and believes that the Lions’ drawn series two years ago proved to the England players that the All Blacks are fallible.
“[Our players] know they’re human. They bleed, they drop balls, they miss tackles like every other player,” Jones said. “It’s our job to take the time and space away so that we put them under pressure. New Zealand talk about walking towards pressure, well, this week the pressure is going to be chasing them down the street.
“That’s the reality of it, that’s how we’re approaching it. We’ve got nothing to lose, that’s the exciting thing for us. We can just go out there and play our game. If we’re good enough we’ll win, if we’re not good enough we’ve done our best.
“The busiest bloke in Tokyo this week will be Gilbert Enoka, the [New Zealand] mental skills coach. They have to deal with all this pressure of winning the World Cup three times and it is potentially the last game for their greatest coach and their greatest captain and they will be thinking about those things. Those thoughts go through your head. It is always harder to defend a World Cup and they will be thinking about that, and therefore there is pressure.”
Jones was asked by a New Zealand journalist if he thought the All Blacks would take notice. He responded: “Well, someone has to ask them a question because the New Zealand media doesn’t – you guys are just fans with a keyboard. Someone has to ask them some questions. The English media, a week ago I was going to get sacked, we couldn’t play. We deal with a completely different situation.”