All coaches insist they never read the newspapers until the day comes when they wish to send a specific message. Thus it is that Eddie Jones spent a large chunk of his pre-Six Nations address insisting Scotland are the nailed-on favourites who will have to cope with the pressure of their lofty status. Say it often enough and maybe a few seeds of doubt can be quietly sown.
The flip side, of course, is what that implies about his own team and a tournament buildup which has been on the grisly side of horrible. No Owen Farrell, Courtney Lawes or Manu Tuilagi. Ditto Jonny May, Sam Underhill, Jonny Hill, the Vunipola brothers, Joe Launchbury and Anthony Watson. A forced evacuation from the team hotel last week because of a fire nearby. A starting winger who has been training in isolation at home this week. Small wonder Jones is trying to shift people’s gaze elsewhere, even publicly suggesting Scotland are “probably two years ahead of us in terms of their development”.
