England will be arrogant, says Jones

“If we didn’t have to leave out good players there would be a real problem”.

Cole was long considered the cornerstone of the England pack yet that status has been under threat following some hesitant outings since neck surgery two years ago to correct a bulging disc. The player himself acknowledges that he has not been quite at full lick and is fully aware that only a high-end performance will do against a Scottish scrum that has been galvanised by the arrival in the World Cup of loosehead, WF Nel. Any team with Dylan Hartley as captain and Billy Vunipola at the back of the scrum won’t be averse to going for the odd pushover either but Jones wants that ball out quick more often than not. We expected high ball-in-play time and a lot of running, when in actual fact it wasn’t. “When you lose it is being arrogant”, Jones said.

“We’re not happy with what happened, just because people are applauding us does not mean we are happy”, he said. Lancaster never got involved in that sort of skulduggery.

“That’s their job. Hopefully you get the players to do it for themselves – and if they can’t do it for themselves then it’s the coach’s job”. I don’t want him to be a 10 or 20-Test player. My gut feeling on Maro is that he’s definitely progressing, but he needs just a little more time. It probably bit us on the arse. Jones says they should not be afraid to try things when they are on but no-one is expecting them to play like the Harlem Globetrotters up at Murrayfield in their opening fixture.

One man who has backed Ireland to win the Six Nations is Steffon Armitage, who continues to be overlooked by England despite being one of the leading stars in the game. He knows he’s in the picture but we can’t pick everyone. The pretty stuff can come later.

Jones will oversee his first match in charge since replacing Stuart Lancaster in Saturday’s RBS 6 Nations clash with Scotland at Murrayfield having had only two weeks to leave his imprint on the team. The obvious game to blood this pair, starting or off the bench is the game against Italy, in Rome, on 14 February.

Eddie Jones has insisted that Danny Cipriani remains “in the picture” with England as the Sale first five contemplates an approach by the European champions Toulon, a move that would effectively end his global career.

“Eddie was a coach who would be at the club first and would leave last”. They’re going to be frothing at the mouth at scrum time.

“I have talked ad nauseum since the World Cup about the balance of the back row being more important than shirt numbers”. But they quietly fancy their chances of putting a spoke in the wheel of the Jones bandwagon. On the face of it a winless Six Nations can not gloss over the heroics of their World Cup quarter-final loss to Australia.

His hand may be forced, however, if Courtney Lawes fails to recover from his hamstring injury with Thursday’s team announcement set as the deadline for the Northampton second row to prove his fitness.

Young rugby fans from Exmouth Community College have had a fantastic close-up look at the best in the game, after getting to watch a training session by the England national team.