England boss Eddie Jones tells stars to ignore haters… and compares abuse to graffiti on TOILET WALLS
EDDIE JONES told his England stars to ignore the haters - by comparing social media abuse to graffiti on toilet walls.
Red Rose boss Jones, skipper Owen Farrell and Co have had stick since their shock Six Nations home defeat by Scotland.
Eddie Jones has told England to ignore the haters ahead of their Italy clash[/caption]Ahead of today’s clash with Italy, Jones said: “Social media is the modern version of what you used to see on the toilet wall.
“You used to go to the urinal and someone would say, ‘X is a terrible journalist this is his number, so ring him’.
“And now we find social media has taken that and has run with it.
“So those people who used to write on toilet walls are the people who are writing on social media now.
“So you make the decision on whether you respect that opinion or not.
“I’d say nothing different is happening there’s just more volume to it and more people take notice of it online.
“I treat it the same way when I used to go to the toilet, I didn’t take any notice of it.”
English football chiefs wrote to Twitter and Facebook on Thursday to demand they put an end to sick and racist abuse on their platforms.
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Jones’ men made a political statement of their own before last Saturday’s 11-6 loss to Scotland by taking a knee for Black Lives Matter.
Asked if he had ordered his players to shut down their own social media accounts, under-fire Jones told BBC Radio 5 Live: “The one thing we are not worried about is what people think.
“The only thing we worry about is what we think and our process for the game is about how we can play as well as we can.”
England should put away whipping boys Italy at Twickenham with little problems having never lost to them.
But wary Jones added: “We will certainly respect Italy. I don’t think that you can ever show them a lack of respect, which seems to be some of the chat I am hearing.”
Meanwhile Courtney Lawes warned the Italians he is being fuelled by FEAR.
The 6ft 7in Northampton Saints lock loves to do the terrorising.
England’s Courtney Lawes has warned Italy he is being fuelled by fear[/caption]But after being stunned by Scotland, he admits England are rattled heading into today’s must-win game against Italy.
Winning his 87th cap at Twickenham, Lawes, 31, said: “We’ve got to have a bit of fear going into these games as we can’t take them for granted.
“Italy will come with a game plan to beat us so we must be on our toes.
“It’s not going to be hard to generate that coming off losing to Scotland. We need to be a bit nervous and hopefully we can reach somewhere near our potential.
“We want an edge to us that’s what our pack’s built on. We want bite.”
Since the start of Jones’ era in 2015, England have averaged 40 points a game against the Azzurri.
And Elliot Daly, 28, is hoping the Red Rose’s blunt back-three also turn up to the party today.
He said: “We can put the Scotland performance right by getting back to what we’re good at putting dangerous players into dangerous areas.”