Hodgson hoping Jones´ ´magic dust´ will aid England

Roy Hodgson has been tapping into the ideas of England rugby union coach Eddie Jones and hopes the Australian has sprinkled some “magic dust” on his team ahead of Euro 2016.

Jones became England’s first overseas coach when he replaced Stuart Lancaster in the top job following a poor showing at last year’s Rugby World Cup.

The former Japan boss went on to lead England to a first Six Nations Grand Slam since 2003, and Hodgson invited Jones to spend some time at the football team’s St George’s Park training base on Friday.

Hodgson hopes that learning about Jones’ experience of working with top-class players can come in handy ahead of leading England at the European Championship in France.

“Basically I was working with him more as a friend. He’s someone I’ve met a couple of times previously,” Hodgson said at a news conference. 

“When we’ve met in the past it’s something we’d discussed about coming to see each other, him at St George’s and me at Pennyhill Park.

“Of course I’m rather hoping that some of his magic dust he had at winning a Grand Slam will rub off, that wouldn’t be harmful in any way.

“It’s always good as a coach to take some ideas or thoughts or to pick brains of other successful managers in other disciplines. Of course the job, if you like, of managing and coaching elite players has a lot of similarities.”

England play three warm-up friendlies before their opening Euro 2016 contest against Russia in Marseille, the first two of which – against Turkey and Australia – are being played away from Wembley at the Etihad Stadium and the Stadium of Light.

Hodgson was keen for his players to get an idea of what is involved in terms of travelling at a major tournament, and praised the Football Association for buying into his idea.

“I’m grateful to the FA for that one. When we came up with these ideas for a new style of preparation going into a tournament that varies from previous ones, it was [playing at different grounds] one of the ideas put forward and mooted,” he added. 

“We’ve got good support in the country and people are wishing us well. So we thought, if we’re playing three, would it be possible to take games around the country and show off our skills to some England fans who don’t always get chance to see us at Wembley.

“I’m happy the FA accepted that idea and promoted it.”