England head coach Eddie Jones has recruited Australian rugby league legend Andrew Johns to help England their attempt to push for a series whitewash.
Jones has called in Johns to meet with his playmakers George Ford and Owen Farrell and said that the lesssons he gave could help England dismantle Australia at Allianz Stadium on Saturday.
Jones said that his playmaker duo had learned some “invaluable lessons” from Johns as they look to make further history this Saturday.
While three match tours are rare in todays rugby calendar England will become the first team to whitewash Australia since the 1971 South African tour if they win this weekend.
“It’s just slight detail, the things that he’s saying are said in a different voice, in a different way that stimulates learning,” Jones told The Daily Telegraph.
“We’ve got two outstanding No. 10s in Owen Farrell and George Ford, and we want them to keep learning.
“Guys like Andrew Johns, they did touch the ball 50 or 60 times in a game, they had to fix defenders, know when to drift, know when to be straight, know when to take a little unders line, how you use your eyes, where you position your hands.
“For those guys to have that lesson this afternoon is invaluable, they’ll remember it for the rest of their life.”
Jones said that he was even considering making the former Kangaroos captain Johns a permanent part of his coaching team.
“I’ve always admired his skills as a player, he’s got a lot of knowledge, a lot he can teach people, and we’ve been chatting for a while about the possibility of him even coming in and doing a little bit of work,” Jones said.
“So today was the ideal day, we had downtime in training … I’m not sure about (making him part of the England coaching team), we’ll just wait and see.”
England’s defence won the match on Saturday even though they outscored Australia in tries but Jones hopes that the lessons that Ford and Farrell have learnt from Johns will increase England’s attack in Sydney.
“They will have learnt things,” Jones said.
“Now you learn things, it doesn’t always mean you pass the test, but they’ve definitely learned things.”
“We still haven’t seen the best of this [England] team, we’re on a learning curve and we want to keep improving,” Jones said.
“We want to be the best team in the world, to win this series 3-0 would indicate we’ve got the right to be the second-best team in the world, and then we take it from there.”
