Six Nations 2017: Eddie Jones admits nicking skills and tactics from other sports as he battles to keep England kings of Europe

EDDIE JONES joked at the Six Nations launch that he picked up a black eye practising MMA with his players.

But dipping into other sports has been beneficial, not painful, for England.

In fact the Red Rose boss — who actually hurt his eye after slipping in the shower —  has borrowed ideas from football, hockey, rugby league, NFL, tennis, cycling, boxing, judo and MMA to keep his team as kings of Europe.

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Here, SunSport’s JONNY FORDHAM looks at the way Jones has ‘magpied’ from other sports to help inspire his team to their incredible 13-game winning run.

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JUDO, MMA and BOXING

Jones has used the grappling skills of judo and mixed martial arts to enhance  fitness and grappling skills of his players.

It has backfired — the controversial blood-bath training camp in Brighton last year ended up with Maro Itoje breaking Sam Jones’ leg during a judo exercise.

But that has not stopped the England set-up introducing Conor McGregor’s brutal sport of MMA.

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The Red Rose coaching staff believe the techniques used by judo and MMA stars to get out of holds can relate to rugby.

Rolling away from a ruck to make sure a player is not penalised and is back on their feet as quickly as possible is a key area of England’s game.

Keeping hold of an opponent and smothering the ball in a maul also has transferable skills from the two fighting sports.

The boxing is used mainly as a fitness exercise to help with aerobic capacity — not right-handers or upper-cuts — although some players might need reminding of that.

FOOTBALL, NFL and TENNIS

To improve hand-eye coordination, England’s players are often seen carrying out running plays or mauling with footballs or NFL balls.

The thinking behind the change of balls is that if Jones’ men can adapt and keep hold of a football or NFL ball then they should find it even easier when the rugby ball is returned to play.

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Often the footballs will be dunked in water and Fairy liquid, making it even harder. And multiple balls are introduced into training exercises so one minute the undefeated stars will be plucking footballs out of the air, the next a tennis ball or an American football.

Jones has also had a brainstorming session with  Three Lions boss Gareth Southgate.

HOCKEY

Jones has drafted in hockey boss Danny Kerry and his assistant Karen Brown after their shock gold medal at the Rio Olympics.

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Jones was keen to learn how the GB women managed to win in Brazil after being underdogs. Now he is looking to do the same with New Zealand dominating world rugby and make the England side greater than the sum of its parts — just as the female hockey stars did.

CYCLING

Straight after the historic whitewash of the Wallabies in Australia, Jones flew to  the Tour de France to shadow Aussie team ORICA GreenEDGE.

Jones was intrigued to know how the cyclists recovered after pedalling for  hundreds of miles for three weeks solid. He also wanted to see behind the scenes how the team move from hotel to hotel every day  in a logistics nightmare that will be similar to the 2019 World Cup.

CRICKET

Jones has spent time with Trevor Bayliss, the England cricket coach. The Aussie pair discussed coaching at elite level and swapped ideas.

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RUGBY LEAGUE

Jason Ryles, the Melbourne Storm defence specialist, spent some of the autumn with England, helping them improve their tackle technique.

League generally tackle with two men and the technique has now sneaked into union.