Jones takes backroom team to Japan for Rugby World Cup recce

Aug 10 • General News, International • 2098 Views • Comments Off on Jones takes backroom team to Japan for Rugby World Cup recce

Eddie Jones has taken a number of his backroom team to Japan for a recce ahead of Rugby World Cup 2019.

It is seen as vital preparation ahead of the tournament in two years time as Jones and his staff finalize plans for the tournament.

They will visit Tokyo, Yokohama, Miyazaki, and Kobe while in Japan looking at multiple venues such as potential training bases and hotels ahead of the event.

“There are two years to go so we are getting to the very serious part of the build up to the Rugby World Cup,” said Jones.

“I wanted to bring some of my staff over here from each department to start to familiarize themselves with Japan and understand the possible climatic conditions as well as get a feel of what it is going to be like to play in the world cup here.”

England will face Argentina, France, United States and Tonga in the pool stages of the competition and as well as wanting his staff to get a better understanding of the weather conditions in Japan he wants them to appreciate the cultural differences.

He also believes building relationships in person ahead of the tournament is also vital in order to make their stay as positive and successful as possible.

“People don’t have the impression of Japan being a hot country,” he added. “It’s not seen as a hot and humid country from foreigners.

“The English, in particular, described Japan as the ‘Far East’ which is a lovely quaint old term.

“In Japan, it’s important to establish relationships in person. Everything needs to be done face to face so it’s an opportunity for our staff to build key relationships with Japanese rugby.”

England will arrive in Japan ahead of the Rugby World Cup in early September 2019, and he wants their training bases to be as ‘normal’ as possible.

“We want to be in locations that are close to normal life, so we want our players to train hard and walk on the street and go for a coffee.

“We’ve got a pretty good idea of when we’ll arrive and we’re just finalizing our pre-World Cup camps and where they will be. We’ll look to come here around 3-6 September and there is a possibility of playing a warm-up game shortly after that. We are looking to play similar teams to the ones we face in the pool stages.”