England coach Eddie Jones is up to his old tricks again, labelling Scotland as “red hot” favourites for Saturday’s Calcutta Cup clash in Edinburgh.
The Australian master of the mind games has also compared England’s new captain Tom Curry with former New Zealand skipper and one of the game’s greats Richie McCaw.
“It’s the first time I’ve had the experience of going up there when Scotland have been red hot favourites,” Jones said on Thursday, looking to ramp up the pressure on the Scots.
“They’re expected to win. Every time their players look at the crowd at Murrayfield they’ll feel that expectation – they’re expected to win. They are red hot favourites and they’ve got to cope with that.
“There’ll be 67,000 fans and they’ll be thinking about all the fans watching the game on the BBC.
“They have to carry that burden. Every game for us is the same. We’re expected to win, so it’s no different for us.”
(Photo by Stu Forster/Getty Images)
The 23-year-old Curry was named his country’s youngest skipper in more than 30 years since Will Carling as he replaces injured Owen Farrell and Courtney Lawes for England’s opening game of the Six Nations at Murrayfield.
“Captaincy is not about the number of caps. It is about the person who can lead a group of players out on the field and lead by example, and there is no better player in our squad to do that than Tom Curry,” said Jones.
“He reminds me of a young Richie McCaw, who could lead by example, and as his career progresses there will be other bits and pieces of his captaincy that go with that.”
McCaw captained the All Blacks in 110 out of his 148 Tests and won two Rugby World Cups.
“He (Curry) is a player who players like to play with, similar to Owen,” added the England coach, who continued his habit of putting opponents on a pedestal as part of the pre-match posturing.
© AAP
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