Eddie Jones expects some fire-breathing Wallabies to front up on Saturday night at Suncop Stadium, and it’ll be the scrum where things ignite.
In a week where Bodyline has been mentioned in almost every interview, Jones said he was expecting Australia to want to send a message about physicality from the get go.
He pointed to last year’s World Cup as an example of Michael Cheika’s side asserting itself immediately.
“Australia’s going to be absolutely rampant,” he said.
“This is the first Test they’ve played with expectations on them and knowing Cheik, maybe one of the advantages we’ve had, we know that their team is going to come out bigger and be absolutely breathing fire.
“Have a look at the World Cup game the first scrum, they hit and chase, it’s a penalty but they don’t care because all they want to do is make a physical statement.
“They want to say, ‘We can dominate your scrum,’ and that’s how Cheik wants to play the game.”
Jones said the quickfire start he expects from Australia would test his players, and either galvanise or expose them.
“It’s going to be a whole different ball game on Saturday night. Some of our players will grow and we hope all of them grow but there could be one or two players that shrink.
“If that happens, that’s a great learning experience for them. We want them to have the experiences now didn’t want them having these learning experiences in the World cup
And a win in a city where they have never tasted success, Jones said, would be crucial to change
“We can’t do what’s been done for previous English teams. We’ve got to have a different mindset, we’ve got to have a different way of how we play the game against Australia, change history
“We’ve got that opportunity on Saturday night.
“[A win] would make everyone go maybe England are actually trying to do something different now.”
“At the Six Nations we set out to be the most dominant team in Europe, we achieved that, now we’ve got an opportunity to break into the top three in the world.
“Here goes, let’s swing the bat, see how we go.”
