Eddie Jones has shot down suggestions Ricky Stuart’s presence in the England camp in the week of a quarter-final clash with Australia was a ploy to unsettle Australia.
Fresh from his Grand Final defeat with Canberra, Stuart and some coaching assistants from the Raiders landed in Beppu to spend the week with Jones and the England camp.
Jones has a history of welcoming Australian NRL coaches into his camp but the timing of Stuart’s visit prompted raised eyebrows in the Wallabies camp, with coach Michael Cheika describing it as “weird”.
England coaches and players this week said it was “awesome” to have Stuart on the ground, and said the squad enjoyed picking the brains of elite coaches like the former Wallaby tourist, and Kangaroos legend.
Asked about the “unsettling” presence of Stuart, Jones was on the front foot at his team naming press conference.
"Well that’s a lovely story you’ve cooked up,” Jones said.
"Ricky and I are old mates, we’ve known each other for a long time. He presented jerseys to the Wallabies during my time as a Wallaby coach, I’ve known his strength and condition coach (former Saracens trainer Nigel Ashley-Jones) since 2007 and he wanted to come over and have a look at what we’re doing and it’s as simple as that.
"It’s an exchange of ideas and I was just telling Owen (Farrell) last night we stayed up until about 9pm picking Ricky’s brains.
"I know you guys can get excited about it, so get excited because there’s not much of a story there guys.
"It’s just an exchange of ideas. We do it all the time.
"If you look at the history of what we’ve done over these four years we’ve invited coaches in all the time because we want to share their knowledge, we want to make sure we keep learning.”
Stuart is the latest in a string of high-profile coaches who had spent time with the England camp, including Craig Bellamy, Sir Alex Ferguson and Roy Keane.
