Jones: Players select themselves

Eddie Jones has been clear on his criteria for selecting his first England squad for the upcoming Six Nations.

The new England head coach is set to announce his first elite player squad on Wednesday, with selections based around a philosophy of speeding up the England game to become the most dominant team in world rugby.

‘You have to be able to increase the tempo of the game,’ Jones said. ‘The old days where you could just strangulate teams, yes, you can do that every now and then in Test matches but you've got to be able to increase the tempo of the game at various times.

‘It puts no pressure on me: the pressure's on the player,’ he added. ‘The player who hasn't been selected hasn't done well enough, it's as simple as that. So, all the pressure is on the player.

‘I accept that there will be criticism of the squad and I accept that people will think other players should be in. Everyone's entitled to their opinion, but at the end of the day the players select themselves because they express themselves in a way that I can see them being a profitable part of a winning England team. Ultimately we want to be the most dominant team in the world, but to start with we've got to beat Scotland. That's the most important thing.’

England take on Scotland on 6 February in the round one of the Six Nations, Jones’s first match in charge.

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