Jones aims to make England self-reliant

Reuters: England head coach Eddie Jones said he aims to foster responsibility and self-reliance in the squad to build a top quality team ahead of the 2019 World Cup in Japan.

England have been accused of inflexibility and sticking to gameplays too strictly and Jones, who previously coached the Brave Blossoms, is confident that nurturing independence is the key to dealing with issues on and off the field. “We very much want to have two levels of management, one is the staff, one is the players,” Jones told British media. “We want the players to be responsible, self-driven, self-reliant.

“We just had a units meeting and the players ran it... They are the sort of things we are doing to constantly develop the leadership of the players, to develop their thinking about the game, develop more responsibility about being active...

“I have still got a few years to go but we are moving in the right direction to making the head coach redundant, which is what we want,” Jones added.

England are missing several key players who were called up to the British and Irish Lions tour or are injured, and Jones believes that their absence makes June’s tour of Argentina a must-win for the home nation.

“Argentina didn’t have a great 2016, they know they are playing an understrength England side so all the pressure is on Argentina and when you are under pressure you can do one of two things,” Jones said.

Scotland must be at their best to beat England - Snodgrass

Reuters: Scotland must perform their best to win Saturday’s World Cup qualifier against England and earn “bragging rights” over their British rivals, midfielder Robert Snodgrass said.

Snodgrass believes the rivalry between England and Scotland will intensify the atmosphere of the match as Scotland look to secure their first victory over their neighbours since 1999 and improve their position in UEFA Group F.

“We all know we will have to be at our very best to beat England. You want to win every single game but this is about bragging rights too,” Snodgrass told British media.

“There is a different sort of edge when you come up against England...I would be lying to you if I said it was just a normal game. If you are not up for this game then I don’t know what’s wrong with you.”

England are six points ahead of Scotland, leading the group with 13 points from five games but Snodgrass is confident his team’s performance defeating Slovenia in March proves that they can overcome their opponents and finish first in the group.

“We all knew that after the last game against Slovenia that it was more like the Scotland that we all want to see. There was no fear and there is nothing to fear,” he said.

“Our objective at the start was to win the group. It wasn’t to just fight for second place...,” added Snodgrass.

“We have always believed we could go for automatic qualification...We want to get there automatically, we want to beat England and we want to kick on.”