Japan vs England: Numbers game doesn't favour Eddie Jones ahead of Steve Borthwick grudge match

Eddie Jones has always been terrible with numbers; maybe that is why so few of his public statements add up.

The vastly experienced Australian will launch his second stint with Japan tomorrow by sending a callow Brave Blossoms line-up into battle against England in Tokyo.

Jones will be itching to put one over his former protege Steve Borthwick, who succeeded him as England coach and then promptly torched his mentor’s legacy.

Borthwick will be every inch as eager to flex his coaching muscles against a man from whom he learned so much but would emulate only in part.

The master-apprentice narrative could prove compelling, but only if Jones’s inexperienced side can generate a true Test against England’s full-strength line-up.

Amid doubts whether that battle of coaching wills can stack up, several of Jones’s latest claims certainly do not.

He even admitted that accuracy on figures is not his strong point yesterday, when failing to find the mental arithmetic on how many scrums England veteran Dan Cole might have faced in his lengthy Test career.

Such a knockabout stab in the dark neatly served as Jones’s potential get-out for several earlier miscounts.

The wily Australian claimed Japan had only been in camp for 10 days, despite his squad assembling in Miyazaki on June 6. The former Saracens boss also characterised Borthwick’s England tenure as a three-year cycle, when the ex-England captain has only been at the Red Rose helm for 19 months.

These are two scraps of information Jones ought to have to hand, because he has been directly involved in both.

This is, after all, his own Japan squad and his first match on the return for his second Brave Blossoms stint. And Borthwick replaced Jones himself at the England tiller, in December 2022.

Still, this is the same Jones who explained his gruelling personal work-rate by declaring “I want to be the fittest 63-year-old coach in the world” in January 2023, when aged 62.

This is all part of the spectacle, an eye-twinkling stage show that is either the art of one of rugby’s greatest coaches, or an ageing boss flirting with the cult of misinformation.

Borthwick basically branded Jones’s England awful at everything when he took the helm, a scalding the taskmaster Australian will not forget. Little more than 18 months in the hot seat, Borthwick has England competent and confident — but now he must drag them well past par in the next year-and-a-half.

Jones, meanwhile, is on a mission to rebuild a reputation fractured by abject failure in his disastrous second stint with Australia at last year’s World Cup.

The Tokyo atmosphere will be as thick with sub-plots as humidity then, on a day when England need to launch their next phase under Borthwick.

Marcus Smith has the backline keys, with England looking to turbo-charge their attacking drive.

In the land of the ultra-reliable combustion engine, Harlequins playmaker Smith has to provide the creative catalyst. If he fails, then another Smith will step off the bench and seek to take control. Northampton’s Fin Smith has starred en route to the Premiership title and is a genuine contender for the starting 10 shirt.

Borthwick not only kick-started a new four-year World Cup cycle in the Six Nations, he also found the nucleus of a new team in just those five Tests.

One man who can power his way into that main cohort, though, is Sale’s Bevan Rodd.

Fit again after a string of injuries, the 23-year-old will win just his sixth cap at loose-head prop, finally claiming the chance to meet England’s lofty expectations.