Jonathan Joseph issues stark warning that England have found ‘the best coach’ to unlock their attacking potential
Jonathan Joseph has warned opponents of England that the man who coached Bath to treble-winning glory will “definitely” unlock the national team’s full attacking potential.
Fresh from playing their part in an enthralling Rugby Championship, Australia, New Zealand and Argentina are Twickenham-bound next month to face an England team on its longest unbeaten run for five years.
On the eve of their seventh successive win, against the United States in Washington in July, head coach Steve Borthwick stated: “We’ve learned how to win and I now want to develop the belief that we will win.”
In his quest to achieve that he flew home and signed Lee Blackett, England’s impressive caretaker attack coach, to the job full time. According to Joseph that is a masterstroke.
The former Bath star won 54 caps and toured with the British and Irish Lions. He scored 17 tries, including two hat-tricks, and played in a World Cup final. His opinion, therefore, carries weight.
“Lee is one of the best coaches, from an attack point of view, I’ve ever seen,” says Joseph. “He gets the game. He completely gets it. His detail is brilliant. His feedback to the lads, or in meetings, is really good, really precise. And he’s just a really good bloke.
‘I think he’ll do a fantastic job at England’
“It’s important as a coach that you can, not get along with everyone, but have those conversations with everyone and there be a respect there. Lee is a really good people person and I think he’ll do a fantastic job at England.”
Blackett, 42, has made an encouraging start. In Argentina and the USA an England team missing 14 Lions won all three Test matches, scoring 13 tries. This Sunday he meets up with the full squad for the first time as a permanent member of Borthwick’s coaching team.
“England have needed someone like Lee for quite a long time now,” adds Joseph, starting out on his own coaching journey. “I’m excited to see what happens with them in the next year or so. Winning seven in a row is really promising, and it can only get better with Lee in that role.
“The way us, as supporters of English rugby, want to see this team play, he will definitely unlock that potential.”
Joseph announced his retirement in September, citing an injury which nine months on had him still unable to run. A decade after being top try-scorer in the Six Nations and England player of the year, a playing career which began at London Irish and hit the heights at Bath, ended unhappily in Biarritz.
“I really struggled there,” he admits. “I wasn’t getting enjoyment out of rugby which I’d had my whole career. I wasn’t getting my dopamine hit, I wasn’t finding any satisfaction in it.
“I went to Biarritz with an expectation. I thought it would be a good club to go to, it would have some money behind it, a professional set-up with ambitions to reach the Top 14. I got there and that wasn’t really the case at all. It hit me for six, to be fair. I really struggled with it.
“I’ve always been a competitor. I still craved that feeling of getting better, even training and seeing the team improve. Working on our attack and our defence. Honestly, I don’t think we improved at all as a team in my two years there and I don’t think the players did either.
“In any profession you want to keep getting better. I enjoy improvement. I didn’t have the opportunity to do that at Biarritz. I think that’s why coaching is going to be a good thing for me.”
Don’t think Joseph is going to be any less demanding of himself in the coaching sphere. That is not how he is wired. He has given himself this season to get up to speed with the finer details of the trade.
He has worked with England U20s and regularly flies back from the south-west of France to coach at Bath University.
Concerned by the ‘ lack of good coaching’
“I think there is a lack of good coaching around and I’m not sure why,” he says, straight out. “I’m not going to name-drop or anything but, throughout my career, I had some really good ones. I also had some not great ones.
“I feel I’ve got a good rugby brain, without trying to big myself up. I feel I see the game a certain way.
“I feel I’ve learned off some fantastic coaches and some fantastic players. I feel I’m a good bloke. I feel I get people and I feel I will always want to keep that on top of my list of priorities.
“Some coaches can be a d**k, do you know what I mean? You can have tough decisions and tough things to do but there’s a right and a wrong way to go about it.”
Joseph’s expertise is already in demand. His younger brother Will is in outstanding form at Gloucester and they regularly compare notes. Max Ojomoh, who made his England debut in Washington and is in fine fettle at Bath, calls him after every game.
“I’m not unrealistic. I would never look to be a head coach straight off the bat,” Joseph says. “What I’m doing now, I think, is perfect for me: getting to coach some of the best academy players in the country, working closely with coaches I know and rate.
“Getting to lead on my own things in training, getting to present to the boys in meetings, then having the coaches give me feedback on the things I’ve done; things that have gone well, things I can improve on.
“Don’t get me wrong, if something comes up now; if the 20s call and say ‘we need someone to mentor the centres’, of course I’m going to jump at it. I’d definitely be happy with a gig were it to come sooner, rather than later.”
*Join Jonathan Joseph and Anthony Watson for a special evening at The Royal Lancaster London, on Tuesday October 28, as they come together to celebrate their illustrious careers.
Special guests will include the England rugby team and legends from Bath, England and the Lions. Availability is limited. To discover more, email chrissy@legends.co.uk.