Eddie Jones will instruct his players to treat Saturday’s final match of the Old Mutual Wealth series against Samoa as ‘a dress rehearsal’ for their 2019 World Cup pool match against another Pacific Island team, Tonga.
The England head coach is guarding against complacency - ‘it is always there round the corner, just sitting there next to you’ - by investing the Twickenham contest with World Cup significance.
Jones, who says that he might consider Maro Itoje as a stop-gap openside flanker in place of the concussed Sam Underhill, is well aware that this final game of the autumn might suffer by comparison with the high-octane finale against Australia last weekend, when England posted a record margin of victory over the Wallabies with three tries in the final eight minutes.
Samoa arrive with grave financial issues affecting their union and with an underwhelming record, their defeat by Romania at the weekend leaving them without a win this season. Jones, though, will be drawing on personal experiences as Japan coach when outlining the potential threat posed by a Pacific Island team.
“100 per cent, this becomes a great dress rehearsal for Tonga in the World Cup and it will be a similar game plan (for Samoa),” said Jones. “Traditionally Samoans have always wanted to hit hard. They'll be disappointed with their performance against Romania but we know when they play at Twickenham they get excited. We need to be right on the job as we emphasised today in the short team meeting.
“We’re treating this as a very important Test. We went with Japan to Fiji and we played in monsoon. I have never seen heavier rain. We got absolutely dished. I can still remember our scrum was going backwards at a rate of knots. So we need to be at our absolute best.”
Jones has made a point of mixing training routines during a Test week to keep his players from getting into a settled groove and will do the same again over the next few days. He reports that there are plenty of ‘bumps and bruises to tend to’, but England were still able to send out a full contingent of players for a Monday afternoon session.
Mike Brown, who was stood down from selection for the Wallabies as he recovered from the head knock that forced him off against Argentina, took part but Sam Underhill, suffering a similar fate to Brown, has been removed from consideration for Samoa.
“Sam needs a rest as that was his second concussion this season,” said Jones, who now has to decide who will wear the No 7 jersey against Samoa. “We might have to get the six-and-a half jersey out again for Chris Robshaw or we can play Maro Itoje there. We can experiment with it because in a World Cup we might have to do that. Sam Simmonds also comes into consideration. I was really impressed with him. It is a great opportunity for us.”