Hodgson: Rugby boss Jones can rub magic to England

England manager Roy Hodgson admitted he hopes England rugby union coach Eddie Jones could rub off some of his ‘magic dust’ on his players as they continue their preparation for Euro 2016.

Jones led England to grand slam success in the Six Nations earlier in the year and Hodgson was grateful for his appearance at St. George’s Park.

Ahead of England’s friendly with Turkey at the Etihad stadium in Manchester on Sunday, Hodgson claimed he doesn’t feel obliged to play every player despite having 26 squad members to choose from.

The 68-year-old also conceded that England have made life difficult for themselves with their three friendly fixtures ahead of their opening Euro 2016 fixture against Russia in Marseille but re-iterated it was done on purpose.

The Three Lions take on Australia and Portugal after the game against Turkey on Sunday.

“Absolutely, I was working with him more as a friend. He’s someone I have met a couple of times previously and when we met we discussed the possibility of seeing each other at some time. Him at St.George’s and me at Pennyhill Park.

“Of course I am hoping a little bit of his magic dust that he had in winning the grand slam will rub off. That wouldn’t be harmful in any way. It’s always good as a coach to take ideas, thoughts and pick the brains of other successful managers in other disciplines because the job of managing elite players has a lot of similarities,” he said of Jones.

He is also not troubled by the condition of his players after a grueling English Premier League campaign.

“We’ve got to be satisfied with them, that’s the main factor. We have to be satisfied because tournaments have a lot of demands on players physically. We’re not concerned about their ability to handle it mentally because they proved that in the past. Physically it’s a very, very demanding thing. We have to satisfy ourselves that they have the physical ability to do it.

“Gary Cahill is here as captain so that’s an obvious one. Joe Hart will be the goalkeeper. We are not looking to play experimentally, we are looking to put out a strong team from the players we have here. You have to understand there are seven senior players who can’t be selected because they played for Liverpool on Wednesday or Manchester United tomorrow.

“That’s right but I don’t feel obliged. We are preparing for the tournament. We are preparing what we think is our best team for the tournament. I don’t feel obliged to give every single player in the squad a game. More importantly it will be the players I think that are important to make certain that when we get to Marseille that those guys have had a chance to play together,” he said of his team against Turkey.

We’ve always had good help from the clubs, this was something we discussed with the Premier League six months ago, when we decided we wanted to change the format of our preparation. To try and normalize it as much as possible and replicate a tournament type structure before going to France with these three friendly matches, taking the team around the country.

“We needed the Premier League clubs on board with that. Obviously we keep data ourselves about the players. While that’s always been in place anyway, I suppose we articulated it a little bit more on this occasion and I am grateful to the Premier League clubs in the way they have supported England, for the fact they have realised we are doing our very best to get the best possible preparation for when we get to France.

“The Premier League have played their part in that scenario. If we are to do well and I do think this form of preparation with almost a seamless step from playing your last league game of the season to starting for the tournament, if that turns out as we hope it will, we’ll use it for future tournaments as well,” the Three Lions boss said of preparations for the tournament.

“I will make one point, if we had been 100 per cent on getting three results so we go there being able to boast we won our three friendlies, I don’t think we would have chosen Turkey, Australia and Portugal as our opponents. We’ve certainly made life difficult for ourselves.

“We’ve done that with a purpose because we know when we get to France every game will be a difficult one and really tough. We’ve started as we mean to continue. Our aim will be to win it, playing the type of football we think will serve us well at the tournament,” he added.

“I was joking about the friendlies we’ve had and said it would be great if we drew them all as we would go under the radar a little bit. I don’t want to put a mark on it. We know as a group what we can achieve and working towards. I’d like to leave it at that. We know in the camp what we can do. We are progressing in the right way, especially over the last couple of years,” Cahill noted.