Eddie Jones speaking at a team meeting. Photo / YouTube
Eddie Jones speaking at a team meeting. Photo / YouTube
England Rugby Union have released a revealing video showing the behind the scenes planning and moments before their 19-7 semifinal win over the All Blacks.
The YouTube series "Rising Songs" documents the squad meetings, training sessions and buildup ahead of England's biggest game of the year.
"This is when itreally comes to life when you get down to the best four teams in the world," says England coach Eddie Jones during a team meeting.
"The whole world is going to view those games now and you get a chance to be a part of it. You get the chance to show your best.
"The other great thing about this week, more so than any other week, is you get to play the best team in the world. You got to respect a team like that. But we'll get them boys. We'll get them this week."
"So we've been building up a tactical game and a physical game that can beat New Zealand and now on Saturday we've got the opportunity to put those two and a half years of planning into practice."
Flankers Tom Curry and Sam Underhill, who dominated the All Blacks at the breakdown to devastating effect, also featured.
In one of the final meetings with the team before leaving for the stadium, Jones is seen motivating his players and offering insight into the gameplan that worked so well against the All Blacks.
"Ready for this?" he asks his team. "I reckon I've coached maybe 150 tests. I've never seen a team more ready for it. You're ready because you've trained hard. You worked hard as a team to get together. We're tactically pretty clear but we can change our game.
"Go out from the first minute of the game. Don't hang back."
They sure did – scoring within the first two minutes – and didn't hold back from there.
