The coach believes his team will have a more positive attitude than against South Africa last year, as a starting XV with a record 813 caps face France in the Autumn Nations Cup final
The inaugural Autumn Nations Cup has not always felt like a substantial meal but something more nourishing might just await at Twickenham. It is a final, for a start, with a title at stake and, glory be, there will be 2,000 real live fans in attendance. If ever there was a year to be grateful for small mercies, this is surely it.
It also offers England a chance to show they can respond to all-or-nothing end games rather better than proved the case in last autumn’s Rugby World Cup final. This fixture, against a below-strength France, is nothing like as pressure-laden but Eddie Jones is determined not to make the same mistakes he now thinks contributed to England’s downfall against the all-powerful Springboks.
