Jones warns against Welsh mischief making

Eddie Jones has warned his England team to be wary of any mischief making by Wales leading into Saturday’s Six Nations showdown at the Principality Stadium.

The defending champions depart for Cardiff on Friday and Jones believes they could be targeted by schemes to unsettle them from the moment they arrive in the Welsh capital.

“You go to the hotel and unless you take steps, players get rung incessantly through the night. Those things happen,” Jones said.

“You go to the ground and the traffic controller drives slower than the traffic’s going to make sure you’re late.

“You get to the ground and there’s something wrong with your dressing room – there’s lights off or the heater’s switched off.

“You can’t check because they traditionally tell you one thing and something else happens. It happens regularly in South Africa and it happens regularly in Wales.

“Those things happen regularly in those sorts of countries, so the challenge for a team to play away is to be better than that. They’re things you can’t control.

“Once we go down the M4 and across the Severn River, we don’t control anything. The only thing we control is our own mental state and the way we play the game.

“That’s how good sides are and the way we want to be. This week’s been a great learning experience for the team in understanding that. Whatever we do on Saturday, we’ll be better for it.”

ENGLAND: Mike Brown, Jack Nowell, Jonathan Joseph, Owen Farrell, Elliot Daly, George Ford, Ben Youngs; Nathan Hughes, Jack Clifford, Maro Itoje, Courtney Lawes, Joe Launchbury, Dan Cole, Dylan Hartley, Joe Marler. Interchange: Jamie George, Matt Mullan, Kyle Sinckler, Tom Wood, James Haskell, Danny Care, Ben Te’o, Jonny May.

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