Jones wants to make Six Nations statement

Flood your Super Rugby. That's a good one. Who in their right mind would risk a cultural labotomy and take a massive pay cut to join a dogs breakfast of a competition that makes less and less fixture sense each year in front of crowds of ...hundreds?

The gap? Eng are better than both SA and Aus. What gap are you talking about? Over the last 10 years Eng has won 8 vs Australias 5. Over the last 10 years Eng has won 63% to Aus 55% against all opponents. If there has been a gap between Aus and Eng its been very small and recently Eng has been better, winning 8 of their last 10 matches against Aus.

No. Hes saying that teams tend to tense up due to the nature of the comp. But I like watching NZ against anyone over any other game. Arg vs SA is less intetesting to me than Eng vs Ire tbh.

From 2000 to the end of 2003 Eng played SANZAR 13 times and won 12. They scored 6 more tries than SANZAR during that time and averaged 26 points and 2 tries per game vs SANZARs 16 points and 1 try per game. So when Eng played SANZAR during that period they did it wrong? They won 12 from 13 against SANZAR and outscored them in every way. Typical tbh. One rule for us, another for them.

Of course he wants to make 6 nations statement. He makes statements about every other aspect of rugby...because the press ask him questions. When the England coach DOESNT want to make a 6 nations statement I will become concerned

Don't really get the question but agree the three are very similar, and that's happened through both England's getting their act together, and Oz and SA regressing a bit. On that basis the gap has closed more than at any other time in the past, bar the English domination in 2003.

Happy new year Rugby. Warming up for the Blues? Could be their year...finally. I think one of the other four is going to replace them with a mediocre year...I just can't work out which one. ?

Good point, last year was the worst Oz and Bok sides in the same year, ever, that's for sure. Difference is it stands out a mile against other years. If that's the norm then rugby's definitely in trouble. Though having many of your best players propping up certain club sides don't help either. It's not as though England, Ireland etc 'flood' our Super rugby.

" It was prevalent even with the great side of the early 2000s where when they went up against the SH sides they went back to the too afraid to lose strategy " Now you're just making stuff up. The try counts weren't massively different and they went on a strategy of whitewashing NZ, SA and Aus except for one game at Loftus where the Boks edged it by kicking all their points. And always makes me chuckle when a kiwi pulls the loss against 13 out his ass as an otherwise victory.

Have you been watching the Championship lately?

All right, lets all play with numbers. In that same period from 2012 England have averaged exactly the same number of tries as the Boks and the Wallabies in their head to heads - 2 a piece. So what does that say about those two teams? They're as adventurous as the average competition England faced in the 6N and England themselves?

So hes admitting the 6Ns isnt currently the best comp in the world. That leaves The Championship then, in comparison.

Well written TM .... BTW, Happy New Year!

No I was responding to your use of average number of tries scored to compare the two competitions. My reference to threes was more about the attitude of the top sides when the heat is on. After winning last year already Jones is talking like you've never heard an English coach before, the setting of a new standard, a new attitude, a specific reference to what we've always known and seen, a negative mindset when the pressures on. It was prevalent even with the great side of the early 2000s where when they went up against the SH sides they went back to the too afraid to lose strategy. Many mention the match they went down to 13 men against the ABs but if you were to rewatch that match only one side made all the play and it's a miracle that somehow England hung on, wave after wave being either defended or stuffed up by the ABs. Of late in the 6N the only times England opened up was when they needed umpteen tries in the last match, one spell from memory going 200 minutes in the 6N between tries. Jones comments are bang on in terms of the required attitude and it's the very difference between looking at what's ahead rather than always looking behind to see who's there chomping at your heels, an attitude the ABs have always adhered to...the setting of new standards, not the closing of ones own borders. The tour of NZ did show some promise but back in the furnace of the home media and World Cup pressures they clammed up under pressure big time. Here Jones is talking about new barriers, and doesn't care about who is out there to stop them. He's dead right in that respect and the reason England just might finally be able to realise the true potential they've always had.

So its the quality of the teams in the 6 nats thats the issue not the ave try tally?

Except a major difference with those stats is SA and Aus have NZ to deal with where the 6N have Italy, and not NZ, and Argie is hardly an Italy. Italy conceded 89 tries in that period in the 6N, an average of 18 a year, or nearly four tries to each other side every year. So if England are averaging two a match and are being given four by Italy alone, the averages look pretty weak. Put NZ in the 6N or Italy in the RC and you get vastly different averages.

Since 2012 the RC try ave is 5 and in the 6 nats its 4. Eng has averaged 2 per game in the 6 nats since 2012 and SA and Aus have averaged 2 per game in the RC since then, Arg only 1 per game. NZ has averaged 4 per game and Scotland and Italy 1 per game. So the truth is that Ire, Eng, Wal, Aus, Fra and SA have scored and ave of 2 per game in their anual tourney and Italy, Sco and Arg only 1. NZ has been the best by far and scored 4. So as usual, there is NZ being outstanding then the rest way behind. Some credit an entire hemisphere or comp with NZs record. I dont.

Agree totally, he's just summarised the general standard of the 6N for at least 50 years where tradition, rivalry, intense competition and passion gets translated on the field as no risks, get the three, get more threes, never yield, blah blah, where adventurous play, instinct, initiative are numbed out of the players at this level. The SH coaching of late is opening this up but Jones and Schmidt have put down the accelerator a bit. In that sense the home unions are still following but catching up quickly. They clearly still need to be lead, both at international and club level.