Eddie Jones Has Begun His Mind Games With Scotland

Eddie Jones has begun his mind games with Scotland ahead of their crucial Six Nations clash.

The rival nations clash in two weeks time in Twickenham, with Scotland still in the title hunt following their memorable victory over Wales on Saturday.

Jones however, believes Scotland will be burdened by expectation ahead of their game. Vern Cotter’s men are currently four points off leaders England with two games to go.

The England boss believes Scotland’s form will give them confidence going into the March 11 clash as it seems the mind-games are already under-way.

“Scotland are already talking it up. They’ve got belief, they’ve got confidence,” Jones told Press Association Sport.
“Confidence leads to better performances and better performances lead to high expectation.
“And now they have to carry the burden of Scotland for the next two weeks, so we’re looking forward to playing them.
“They are expected to win, aren’t they? They are talking about being on a roll and when you say you are on a roll you are pretty confident.
“I don’t think you’ve ever heard me say we’re on a roll. We’ve won 17 games in a row and we’re not on a roll. We want to keep the Calcutta Cup here.
“I thought Scotland were outstanding against Wales, especially the simplicity of their tries.
“They ran straight, they are a really good Kiwi-coached side. They contest hard at the breakdown and are then very good in transition.
“They are a really well-coached side and everything is coming together for them.”

Much has been made of Italy’s breakdown tactics during England’s 36-15 win last weekend, but Jones says he doesn’t expect similar from Scotland, while taking another pop at Conor O’Shea’s tactics.

“I’m sure Scotland will play proper rugby. We’re going to have a hard contest. They are going to come hard at the breakdown, it’s going to be a hard game of rugby,” he said
“I’ll talk to my coaches and see what we need to do, but we’re in a pretty good place.
“We don’t have any injuries, we don’t have any bumps or bruises because we didn’t make any tackles.
“That is amazing for us because we’ve been patching people up and now we’ve got a chance to get them really right, so we’ll be humming by Scotland.”

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