Former Wallaby coach Eddie Jones talks to rucked.com as he prepares for his first full season at the helm of Saracens...
Ahead of your first season in charge of the team there appears to be plenty to work on...
The two things we’ve got to get right before we do anything else will be defence and set-piece. We conceded 525 points and missed 12.5 tackles per game, and I believe we were ranked seventh and ninth in line-outs and scrums respectively.
Excited about tackling the Premiership head on though?
It’s been interesting talking to some of the guys who’ve been here a while, particularly people from the southern hemisphere like Glen Jackson. The improvement of the league over the last three or four years has been noticeable and I think (London Irish coach) Brian Smith said it was the best league in the world now. I don’t know if it’s the best, but it’s certainly pretty good and it’s only going to get better. You’ve just got to look at the quality of players that are coming in and the quality of players that are being produced here and it lends itself to a pretty strong competition.
The recruitment you've done should help...
At this stage we’ve brought in three good international forwards in Michael Owen, Steve Borthwick and Wikus van Heerden and promoted four from the academy in Noah Cato, Alex Goode, Andy Saull and Don Barrell, which is good to see. We expect all those young guys to make a bit of an impact and it shows what a good job Mike Hynard is doing in the academy. It’s important that we produce good players.
Not forgetting centre Ben Jacobs from the NSW Waratahs...
Ben is a good solid rugby player and is a real team man. He’s a strong runner, very good defensively and works very hard at his game – he’s very much in the Kevin Sorrell mode. His arrival adds to the depth at outside centre and it now means we have four players competing for that spot. Historically, outside centre has been a difficult position to fill when Sorrell has been out injured for any length of time so it was important that we added to the competition in that area. Ben is still only 26 so he has a lot of rugby left in front of him and his performances for the Waratahs over the past few seasons have proved he can perform at the highest level.
And there's been plenty of movement on the coaching front with Alex Sanderson, Paul Gustard and Cobus Visagie all stepping up...
One of the things we want to do is to build on what Alan (Gaffney) had for the last couple of years by a) encouraging players who’ve been at the club and who’ve got the potential to be good coaches, and b) to produce good coaches ourselves. That’s what good clubs do and all these guys are good young guys. Alex retired early as a player and had real ambition to be a good coach. He came out to Queensland Reds with me and had a tough year there, but he’s done well with England’s Under-18s and this is a natural progression, although he’s got a fair bit to do and a fair bit to learn. Gustard was an analytical sort of player. He maybe didn’t always play like that but he’s quite analytical off the field and he’s got a good work ethic about him, a good attitude, is hard-nosed and I think he’ll be a good influence for the young players. And Cobus, technically, is one of the best scrummagers in the world.
You've appointed a General Manager of Rugby too, with Peter Horne arriving next month from the Samoan Rugby Union...what’s his role going to be?
Peter’s background in working with and getting the best out of world class athletes will be a valuable asset to Saracens. He understands what is required to perform at the highest level and what environments are needed to achieve that. His experience will be vital as he works with the Academy and our Elite Player Development Group athletes but he also has an important role to play in terms of talent identification and ensuring that all players who come to Saracens meet the criteria we are looking for in that they are skilful, smart, motivated and passionate about the club.