Wallabies star: Eddie is ‘the king of mind games’

Wallabies scrumhalf Nic White has batted away praise from Eddie Jones as “mind games” as Australia prepare to face England at Twickenham on Saturday.

Australia are coming off a tough 15-12 loss to Scotland that ended a five-game winning streak stretching back to the win over the Springboks in the Rugby Championship.

The Wallabies now have the opportunity to avenge the humiliating 2019 World Cup quarter-final loss at the hands of Jones’ England, which ended Michael Cheika’s tenure as Australia head coach.

In the match buildup, Jones singled out White as a player England should be keeping an eye on, but the Australia scrumhalf said that he is wary of reading too much into that.

“It’s nice for him to give us some praise but Eddie’s the king of mind games, so I’m not reading too much into what he says,” White said.

“He’s the type of guy you’d love to sit down and talk rugby with and hopefully one day we get that chance.”

White added that the chance to claim the first win over England at a packed Twickenham since 2015 is something that the Wallabies will be looking forward to.

“Everyone’s playing a few moments over in their head and what they’d do differently,” he said. “But, for everything that went wrong, we were still two points away from a result.

“Now, playing at a sold-out Twickenham, winning away from home, that’s memories for life. We’ve got a great opportunity to do something that not many Australian teams have done.

“England are a side we’re desperate to beat and they’ll always be big.”

Photo: Mike Hewitt/Getty Images

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