Eddie Jones has fired his first shot in the Six Nations mind games war by claiming Ireland playmaker Jonathan Sexton has a "bat phone to the referee" - just like ex-All Blacks captain Richie McCaw.
Jones' England team will open the Six Nations campaign against titleholders Ireland in Dublin on February 3.
Sexton has missed Leinster's recent games with a knee tendon niggle but is expected to play for Ireland, and Jones has already had a dig.
"Sexton is a reasonably big player who has the bat phone to the referee," Jones said at a press briefing in London late last week.
"He is the only one allowed to pick up the red phone to talk to the referee."
Richie McCaw speaks with referee Jerome Garces during the 2015 Rugby World Cup semifinal.
"When he [Sexton] talks, the referee listens. That is because of his status in the game – you earn that, like Richie McCaw did," Jones explained.
The former Wallabies and Japan coach also threw out a theory from leftfield, saying he was considering playing England and British and Irish Lions outside back Jack Nowell as "a ninth forward" because of his breakdown skills.
Jones claimed the idea was sparked by a recent conversation in Melbourne with former Olympic Games winning Australian hockey coach Ric Charlesworth.
"He knows nothing about rugby and just stimulated some great thought. It rejigged an old idea that I had that I think is worth looking at for us," Jones said.
"Someone like Jack Nowell is such a good player that he could play a number of positions for us. Why not try it?"
Eddie Jones has fired the first shots in the Six Nations mind games battle with Ireland.
Jones said Nowell, who usually plays fullback, wing or centre "knows everything about the breakdown now".
"If you look at world rugby in terms of breakdown skills, he would be one of the highest skilled players. We are not talking about a player that doesn't understand the game. He is a player that understands the game and can play 13, 15, 11 now quite easily. It might be that at the end of the game, he can play as a ninth forward for us. It gives you that flexibility."
However, England's World Cup winning coach Sir Clive Woodward accused Jones of a "huge own goal" for raising the Nowell positional switch.
"This talk of using Jack Nowell as an extra forward or an outright number seven is a huge own goal," 2003 World Cup-winning coach Woodward wrote in his Daily Mail column.
"This was his first press conference of 2019, a massive year for English rugby and he's discussing something completely irrelevant.
"It may be Nowell is going to play more centrally without the ball rather than being left out wide. But, again, why telegraph this? Ireland will be tracking him now."