George Smith warns England’s Grand Slam winners: Listen to Eddie Jones’ threat or you’ll be out

Photo: Pascal Rondeau/Getty Images
Pascal Rondeau/Getty Images
Chris Jones19 April 2016

George Smith today warned England’s Grand Slam winners that Eddie Jones will carry out his threat to drop them for the summer tour to Australia unless they hit top form in the climax to the season.

Head coach Jones issued a blunt public warning to the “four or five” players he believes have been coasting since England sealed the clean sweep last month.

Smith was part of Jones’s Australia side that lost the 2003 World Cup Final to England and took time away from preparing for Wasps’ European Champions Cup semi-final with Saracens on Saturday to give an insight into his former boss.

Flanker Smith said: “That will not be an idle threat because Eddie wants the best players on tour and if you are not playing and training at the standard he wants then I guess it’s a case of ‘watch out!’

“There were many times when Eddie got inside my head with the Wallabies but it always made me a better player. It’s about whether there is a positive or negative reaction to what he is saying. There is a reason for everything he says and in the conversations I had with him as a young player and now, it is always about how I can get better.”

Jones brought Smith into England training during the Six Nations to give advice over the break-down.

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