Jones aims high ahead of England opener

Editor

Eddie Jones has said that England eventually "want to be the most dominant team in the world" as he nears his first game in charge.

England take on Scotland at Murrayfield in the Six Nations – coincidentally also the first fixture of former head coach Stuart Lancaster's time in charge – on February 6.

Jones is set to announce his first England squad on Wednesday.

“Ultimately, we want to be the most dominant team in the world but to start with, we’ve got to beat Scotland,” Jones said.

“We’ve got to make sure that when we go to Scotland, we’re well prepared, we’re cohesive, players understand their roles and then we’ve got to play with enormous pride and passion.”

Jones, in a video on the RFU website, also outlined his thinking when it came to selection.

“It puts no pressure on me – the pressure’s on the player. The player that hasn’t been selected hasn’t done well enough, it’s as simple as that. So all the pressure is on the player. I accept that there will be criticism of the squad and I accept that people will think other players should be in," he stated.

“Everyone’s entitled to their opinion but, at the end of the day, the players select themselves. And the players select themselves because they express themselves in a way that I can see them being a profitable part of a winning England team. You have to be able to increase the tempo of the game.

“The old days where you could just strangulate teams, yes you can do that every now and then in Test matches, but you’ve got to be able to increase the tempo of the game at various times. And you see everything that’s being done in the game at the moment, and the latest example is the maul, and everything that’s being done to speed the game up – the game’s not going to regress, it’s going to go forward.”