Eddie Jones gives chaos a whirl to keep England on their toes for autumn Tests

No one can spot a speck of complacency at 20 paces more surely than Eddie Jones and the announcement of England’s autumn international squad was a classic of the genre. Drop a senior player to send a message to everyone else? Check. Tell an in-form Lion he needs to crank things up further? Check. Make it crystal clear there will be no 2019 World Cup success without improvements across the board? Check, mate.

It made for an interesting, occasionally enlightening morning beside the Thames at the London offices of Old Mutual Wealth, sponsor of the November Tests. Jones likes working beside stretches of water, whether it be Sydney’s Coogee beach or Brighton marina, but he hates going with the flow. No England player with any ambition to be big in Japan will be doing any drifting on his watch.

Hence the less than subtle message that World Cup places can still be won and lost. Already the larger-than-life James Haskell has been jettisoned, his chances of a recall best filed under the heading “improbable”. It also remains to be seen whether all the squad’s other thirtysomethings will hang on for another two years.

“We need to make the team more uncomfortable and have a bit of chaos in the house, not have everything nice and rosy,” Jones said. “We’ve got some information on other teams that indicates there’s a gap of about 20% in certain areas and that’s what we’ve got to bridge. We want to win Test matches but the most significant thing is to build towards the World Cup.”

Even Courtney Lawes, outstanding for the Lions and prominent for Northampton in the season’s opening weeks, has been given a hurry-up in the buildup to the Test against Argentina a fortnight on Saturday. “He started the season like a house on fire but someone has put some water on it,” Jones said. “We’re going to try to reignite the fire.”

The inclusion of two apprentice squad members, Zach Mercer and Marcus Smith, also prompted a few Sir Alan Sugar-style gags about tea‑making but it is another canny move. Jones wants no one feeling they are indispensable.

The only exceptions this autumn will be one or two weary Lions who will not be overly flogged. Those who started all three Tests against New Zealand in the summer are set to be used sparingly next month, although Jones did hint Maro Itoje would see some involvement. “I don’t know about him but there’s definitely a chance you won’t see some of them,” Jones said. “We see a bit of movement in and out of the squad for this November series.”

There is every prospect, either way, of Exeter’s uncapped Sam Simmonds taking the field at some point, his versatility and spectacular form for the Chiefs having propelled him past several other back‑row contenders. “We don’t really have someone who can cover everywhere in the back row which makes him potentially very valuable for us,” Jones said.

It is tough on the Chiefs’ outstanding Don Armand and Newcastle’s unlucky Mark Wilson, although neither of them have the startling pace of Simmonds. With Jones also going out of his way to describe Chris Robshaw as “our first-choice 6” and the injured Billy Vunipola still to return, all the admirable Armand can do is count to 10 and stay patient. “It’s a hard team to get into and it’s going to get harder,” Jones said. “We’ve picked 34 and we’ve got another 10 who are not available for selection. That’s how we want it to be.”

Competition is also hotting up out wide, where Denny Solomona has been given another chance to demonstrate he can score tries in any company. Jones says the Sale winger hugely regrets the fateful late night with Manu Tuilagi that led to both being sent home from England’s summer training camp and, according to the head coach, there are other people on his case: “He slept for two weeks on his floor. His wife kicked him out of his bed. Two weeks probably was not long enough, she was probably too soft on him. He is very contrite about it. He knows he made a serious mistake and he knows that if he makes it again things won’t be looking so good. I am driving up this afternoon to have another chat with him.”

Jones is drafting in another posse of specialists to help prepare the squad in Portugal next week, including the vision coach Sherylle Calder, the scrum guru Marc Dal Maso, the Australian rugby league coach Jason Ryles and Neil Craig, a former Australian rules football player and coach, who will be invited to assess the setup in general.

The dispiriting debate about what music should be played whenever England score a try at Twickenham does not concern Jones – “The day I hear music at the game will be the day I retire” – but he is keen to leave a healthy legacy for his successor. Specifically, it is Jones’s firm view that England should nurture their traditional point of difference, not try to be a white‑shirted All Black tribute act. “English teams are good at set piece and they love to defend. So you don’t want to take those things away. If there’s one thing I can leave for English rugby, it is that understanding: don’t go away from what you’re good at.”

Nor will England be shying away from rugby’s oldest currency: winning. “We’ve got to keep winning because, if we don’t, I won’t be in the job. All I’ll have to worry about is what plane I’m going to get on.”

There is nil prospect of the RFU parting company with their head coach before 2019 – “If they tell me to walk across London Bridge I’ll do that … I’m a very obedient Australian” – and even less chance of Jones’s players being mollycoddled.