Jones: Places in England squad still up for grabs
The Grand Slam winners will play a three-match Test series in Jones’ homeland with games in Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney.
England have only ever won three times in Australia and have never come away with a series victory, a statistic Jones is eager to change.
“I want to see which players are desperate to change the history of English rugby,” said Jones.
“Players who want to go down there and get in the face of the Australians and make them uncomfortable.
"I’m looking for the guys that want to do that.”
Jones has assembled a 26-man training squad in Brighton ahead of a Test against Wales on May 29 before the three-match tour of Australia.
The squad is minus the inclusion of players involved in the Premiership semifinals – where players have another opportunity to put their hands up for selection – and Jones says places are still up for grabs in his final tour group.
“There are a few spots still up for grabs, a few borderline spots but obviously we’ve got between 10-15 players involved in the semifinals or even more, so they come back into consideration and 44 does not go into 31 or 32 or 33,” he said.
“The guys here have got an opportunity to put their best foot forward, we’ve got some guys who haven’t been involved in the camp before and some guys who have been just around the fringes so it’s their opportunity.”
Jones says the purpose of the next few days in Brighton will be to start physical preparation for Australia as well as remind the players of what it means to play for England.
“We know Australia can play at a high pace and high intensity and we’re not used to that at the moment so we need to bridge that gap,” said Jones.
“We’re not going to make big physical changes in the next four weeks but we can make mental changes."
He added: “All the players have been back at their clubs, doing as their clubs have asked them to do and now they have to learn how England want to play.”
Two players not in the training squad are Ospreys flank Sam Underhill and Worcester-bound Ben Te’o both of whom Jones says could be involved in England in the future.
“I think we are getting towards a resolution (with Te'o), we are moving in the right direction,” said Jones.
“Sam Underhill – I went down to Cardiff and had a good chat to him.
"He is a young kid and has had a lot of injuries this year.
"We decided the best for him is to have a good pre-season, get that under his belt and then hopefully by November he will be eligible to play for England. “
Jones also says fatigue will not be an issue for his squad when they tour Australia.
“As soon as you start talking about a long-hard season you are saying you don’t want to win,” he said.
“Every team has got this same issue but southern hemisphere teams come here in November.
"The All Blacks don’t complain about a long-hard season, they enjoy it and play super rugby and there is no reason why we can’t go to Australia and play super rugby.”
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