Rugby World Cup 2019: England ramping up pressure on All Blacks despite ‘spygate’ scandal, says John Mitchell

Eddie Jones ignited a ‘spygate’ row at the Rugby World Cup yesterday as England accused the All Blacks of watching their semi-final opponents New Zealand of spying on training, with their own in-house Kiwi John Mitchell brushing off the All Blacks’ attempts to get under their skin by claiming the world champions are the ones under all the pressure.

Jones lit the blue touch paper on Tuesday by claiming an individual was seen watching England’s training session, just five days out from the semi-final against New Zealand in Yokohama. With former All Blacks head coach Mitchell his current assistant, Jones needs no second opinion on what the Kiwis will be up to this week, and he believes that even if they were able to watch England’s full training session, they will have learned very little from it.

“The game is pretty small, you know all the coaches,” said Mitchell, who coached the All Blacks from 2001 until their third-place finish at the 2003 Rugby World Cup. “I played with Ian Foster for 10 years, and I used to coach Scott McLeod [New Zealand assistant coaches], so I know all these guys really well. If that is what they want to do and that is the way they want to prepare, good luck to them. The game is highly unstructured, so I don't see any advantage in it.

“We just happened to be training where there are apartments above where our tiny two-metre tarpaulin was, so I am not sure about what the use of the tarpaulins are. The facilities have been excellent, but it is an area where people live and there are the odd red lights around. There was one up in the corner which was a bit suspicious.”

In his press conference, Jones had claimed that he had not used spying tactics at all since 2001, and even turned to Mitchell to claim he had spied on his own Wallabies team during that era, when Mitchell served under Sir Clive Woodward with England.

But England are unlikely to do anything similar, it seems. “When I took over the All Blacks in 2001, we had a manager who was highly military and he loved surveying the whole area,” continued Mitchell. “To me, you can get too involved in it and create an anxiety on your group.

“We have a really good environment and focus on our work at hand and want to enjoy it as well. We are definitely not a group who wants to increase the anxiety. There is enough pressure at this level, let alone chasing around some blokes that might be in a building with a camera.”

Mitchell did go on the offensive in discussing how much pressure is on the All Blacks though. Jones was keen to stress that England have “nothing to lose” this weekend, despite their World Cup hopes being on the line just as much as New Zealand’s, and Mitchell believes the right way to get at the All Blacks comes not in using words to get under their skin but by knocking them off their game plan and making them dance to the beat that England give them.

"Definitely, it's about putting more pressure on them,” he said. "It's about getting our game going and applying that pressure. Like every rugby team, them in particular, they love to be at the right end of the field.

"If you deny them the right end of the field you have every opportunity of applying and initiating what we have, what we're good at.

"So I guess that's the challenge in front of us. One that tactically we're excited about and also physically excited about. They are going to have to handle pressure like we are on the weekend. I guess it is a case of who can sustain that pressure. We are going to have to go the distance, because they will fight right to the end – that is their nature and we are well aware of that. They deserve credit for that. But at the end of the day if you want to be the best in the world you have to go the distance.”

Jones also took a swipe at the New Zealand media for giving Steve Hansen and his side an easy ride – something that Mitchell was not exactly afforded during his time in charge. The 55-year-old former All Black had a fractured relationship with the media in his hometown, something that played a large factor in costing him his job following the 22-10 defeat to Jones’s Wallabies side in the 2003 semi-finals, so it was no surprise to hear him echo his boss’s thoughts that the current crop of press were “fans with keyboards”.

“I think Steve has been in that post a long time and he has been extremely successful and he is seeking to repeat, and has made some changes in the last year,” said Mitchell. “I think probably the New Zealand media have become very comfortable with Steve’s personality and the way he communicates. He is not too different to Eddie in the sense that he actually has a bit of fun in his media as well.

“He probably deserves an easy ride. He has been the most successful Test coach in the last two World Cups and is obviously under pressure to do a third one.”