Australia to provide England with stern test at Twickenham

Jones has since accused Australia rival Cheika of staining rugby’s image with his public outbursts ahead of the game, after the latter escalated the war-of-words by claiming Jones has a “chip on his shoulder”.

Jones has also been playing mind games with Cheika in the run-up to Saturday but if England has had it easy in the three Tests so far this Autumn, the Wallabies are a different breed from South Africa, Fiji or Argentina.

Wallaby coach Michael Cheika has hit back at comments from Glen Ella that he was still having “nightmares” over England’s 3-0 series win “Down Under” in June by indicating the former Australia global was not a man for tough times.

Before England arrived on Australian soil for their series in the summer, Jones had lit the blue touch paper saying he was expecting a coordinated attack on his side from the local media.

Friends and former Randwick team-mates Cheika and Jones have traded verbal volleys all week, and now the Australia boss has rounded on his Wallabies predecessor once again. If that’s how he wants to behave, that’s entirely up to him.

More interestingly, both are Pacific islanders who made a decision to pledge their rugby allegiance to their present place of domicile.

After his memorable end to 2015 when he took an unfancied team to the World Cup final, Cheika is facing the first major test of his global coaching tenure.

“Then Michael’s decided he wants to get the machine gun out”, said Jones. “I think you saw when he was in Australia that he got a lot of respect”.

“I think the evidence was on the field”. They are fit, they work hard to get good shape in attack and defence, and fullback Mike Brown plays with pure passion.

If our kicking isn’t at our highest standards, there is every chance Australia will get blown off the park on Sunday, although there is no shortage of motivation for them and we know that we will always match any opposition for courage.

“My responsibility is to get my blokes scrummaging right, and square, and doing their best to keep the thing up on its feet”.

“You know what I mean: “Oh I don’t want them looking at ours so I’ll point to someone else’s”, you know?” The first six months or so were frustrating and I couldn’t really stay fit and when I was fit I wasn’t near sharp enough.

Second row George Kruis confirmed England are ready for anything the Wallabies can throw at them and they will be lining up Aussie half-backs Nick Phipps and Bernard Foley for some special attention.

Of Wallaby sides to play 10 or more matches in a year, only two teams – those in 1958 and 2005 – have had a poorer winning percentage than what Cheika’s men will end up with (40 per cent) if they don’t hit their straps at Twickenham. It’s a bit of fun and a laugh, but the time for that is over and it’s about concentrating on the match now.

“This team has. improved since they last met in Sydney as Eddie, whilst happy with the series win, always wants his team to move forward and they have, especially in the backs”, Ella wrote in an online column. Kick-off is 24 hours away and the players take over now. “This is the last time this group will have played together as a team and we’ve put a lot of emphasis on that”.