The Autumn Internationals do matter, especially for under pressure Eddie Jones

Few of us are certain what to make of the Autumn Internationals or how highly to rate them. They are competitive, but they are also used by coaches as preparation for the Six Nations. Officially they are friendlies, though in a good many of them there is a cup, shield or piece of plate to be won or lost. Few however could name these trophies. The matches do affect world rankings, but these are irrelevant, except as matters of pride once the seeding for the next World Cup has been determined.

Still they do matter – to players, coaches, supporters and the national Unions – to the last of these considerably, for they go a long way towards swelling the coffers. Evidence of this is provided by the Scottish Rugby Union. They have sold out their three matches at Murrayfield; a few years ago the ground was often only two-thirds full, or less, in November. This year’s happier position is partly the result of improved performances in the Six Nations, partly however because a year ago Scotland thumped Australia and came near as dammit to beating New Zealand.

The first round of matches this weekend is a bit rum. Since it falls outside the IRB’s designated international window, clubs are not required to release players except to their home union. The clubs’ position is understandable. Nevertheless, it makes this Saturday’s matches less exciting than they might have been.

Twickenham is the match most affected. England can be at full-strength, or at least as near to that as their lengthy injury list permits. South Africa will be without players contracted to English clubs missing five who would probably be in coach Rassie Erasmus’s first choice XV. So the match is a bit devalued and fans with tickets are entitled to be disgruntled. Doubtless disgruntlement will fade away if England put in a cracking performance and win handsomely.

It’s no news that of all the Six Nations coaches, Eddie jones is under the most pressure. When he was appointed after England’s failure to reach the quarter-final of the 2015 World Cup, there was general delight, tempered scarcely at all by the occasional warning that he was a bit like a rocket: going off with a bang and then fizzling out. England’s run of defeats in the Spring and early summer after prolonged, but not complete, success, suggested that there might be something in the rocket theory.

Of course, there were reasons or excuses for the falling-away. There were injuries to key players, notably Billy Vunipola. Then some – Maro Itoje, for instance – seemed tired, even exhausted, after their efforts on the Lions tour of New Zealand. Fair enough, but wasn’t this because unlike, say, Irish Lions stars, Itoje and others such as Owen Farrell were over-played and denied adequate rest by their clubs? And wasn’t this because, more than twenty years after the game went professional, the RFU still haven’t properly sorted out their relationship to the clubs – even though one would assume that the Union holds the whip hand? It is rolling in cash and all but one Premiership club lost money last season. The RFU pays the piper but doesn’t call the tune.

Still responsibility for some of England’s decline last season must rest with the coach. His first and most important job is selection, and some of Jones’s selections have been hard to understand or defend. Almost everyone could see that England were losing matches because they were too slow at the breakdown and so failed to provide a very talented and exciting back division with quick ball. England were ponderous at 6, 7 and 8. They had potentially the best back division in the championship but the pack was slow and cumbersome. In short the team didn’t fit together. But Jones did nothing to correct this or repair the deficiencies. Perhaps things will be different this year. He is fortunate that the brilliant Saracens flanker Michael Rhodes has now qualified by residence to play for England.

There’s no doubt that these November games are important for England and for Eddie Jones himself. He has four matches in which he can begin to put right what began to go wrong in the Spring – in a Six Nations tournament in which England didn’t play one convincing match. They should begin with a win over the below-strength South Africa, and if they do that, they will at least be in the right frame of mind to tackle New Zealand the following week. Fortunately, England have the habit of raising their game when they play the All Blacks. On the other hand, if they lose both matches there will be calls for a tumbril for Mr Jones.

For what they are worth, the world rankings have Ireland at two and Wales at three. Both have rather odd first matches. Ireland play Italy in Chicago where they beat New Zealand two years ago. That memory remains warm, but the decision to play on what is, I suppose, neutral territory, goes some way to reinforcing the view that the Autumn internationals are a bit short of being the real thing. Meanwhile Wales entertain Scotland in Cardiff. This Autumn clash of two Home Unions is unusual. The match was arranged in support of the former Scotland lock Doddie Weir’s campaign to raise money for research into the horrible Motor Neurone Disease with which he has been stricken – though both unions at first seemed reluctant to allocate a share of ticket sales to the charity. Happily, they have now been shamed into doing so.

Wales and Scotland are both without players attached to English or Welsh clubs and – a nice touch – Scarlets, the Llanelli-based Welsh club, have chosen not to release the New Zealand born and bred but Scotland-qualified back rower, Blade Thomson whom the Scottish coach Gregor Townsend has included in his November squad. Anyway, both teams will be composed of home-based players, which is pretty unusual, certainly for Scotland.

Indeed, I suspect one has to go back to the amateur days, and indeed to the 1980s, to find Scotland fielding a XV all of whom played their club rugby in Scotland. They did that at Cardiff in 1984 in the first match of what proved to be Scotland’s first Grand Slam since 1925, not a bad omen, if you believe in omens. That said, Scotland have a record in Cardiff that is almost as dismal as their Twickenham one, and after a splendid November last year, were soundly beaten when they kicked off their Six Nations campaign in Cardiff. For whatever the reason home advantage counts a lot in rugby as in most sports. What can be said with some certainty is that defeat this weekend will matter much less to Wales or Scotland than it would to England. Twickenham is the place where the stakes are really high, all the more so because the denial to South Africa of their England-based players tilts the odds heavily in England’s favour.