England coach Eddie Jones, who led Japan to their famous win over South Africa in the 2015 World Cup, said he was joking around when he said on Saturday that England were out to physically smash his former team.

The former Wallabies boss, whose side lost to New Zealand 16-15 at the weekend, said he was keen to see his side take out their frustrations by hammering the Japanese on their first visit to Twickenham on Saturday.

But Australian Jones, whose mother is Japanese/American, said on Tuesday: “I love Japan, love the players, I was just having a bit of fun.

“But it’s potentially a difficult game for us and we have to have the right mindset and that’s to smash the Japanese.”

Japan coach Jamie Joseph, who also like Jones names his team on Thursday and is without some key players, recognised that they faced the stiffest of physical tests.

“I’m not sure we can run away from the big boys. One to 15 they are pretty big compared to our blokes,” said the former All Blacks flanker.

“Rugby is pretty simple – you have got to create momentum from set pieces and that is our first challenge and we are working on that.

“When we can do that we can score tries and we did that against the All Blacks and we have done it against tier-one teams, France and Wales.

“But we are playing at Twickenham and the players are going to experience a different style. The game in England is very different to other parts of the world.”