"Prepared for North Korea to fire a missile, prepared for an earthquake, for bad sushi, for bad refereeing. It doesn't matter what happens, they will be ready for it. We need to make the team more uncomfortable, not have everything nice and rosy but have a bit of chaos in the house. Every time we come together now it's about building towards the World Cup."
Jones has shaped everything to that end, from the call-up for Portugal of two "apprentice" talents in 18-year-old Harlequins' fly-half Marcus Smith and 20-year-old Bath back-row forward Zach Mercer, to the short-term hiring of coaching assistance in Jason Ryles from Australian Rugby League, Neil Greig from Australian rules football and Toulon's Marc dal Maso.
But more significant than the presence of new individuals will be the shift in emphasis to World Cup mode, the upscaling of conditioning programmes, allied to the demolition of comfort-zone walls and the relentless chasing down of the All Blacks.
"We've got information on other teams that indicates there's a gap of about 20 per cent in certain areas and that's what we've got to breach," said Jones. "The All Blacks used to look at the World Cup with a view that as they were the No 1 team in the world, they would turn up and win it. What they've learned in the last eight years is the process of building towards a World Cup campaign.
"What they have done post the Lions tour has been so clever in terms of being able to expand their depth, to experiment with the way they've played the game. They've deliberately put themselves under pressure in games to equip themselves better for the World Cup. It's time for us now to start developing the depth and adaptability of the team."
Even if there is to be a focus on performance-related aspects, Jones is adamant that "results are everything", citing the reaction on talkback radio to Spurs manager Mauricio Pochettino, who "was the world's best young coach last week and loses one game and he's not the man to lead Tottenham".
In Portugal, Jones will assess the freshness levels of the English Lions to determine how many of them play in the series.
"There is definitely a chance you won't see some of them," noting that "some are a long way off", in terms of current form, alighting on Northampton's Courtney Lawes as one who "started the season like a house on fire, but someone has put some water on the fire and we're going to try to reignite the fire again".
Jones travelled to Manchester on Thursday to see Solomona, a player he rates highly enough to have preferred him ahead of Semesa Rokoduguni and Marland Yarde despite the indiscretions.
"Denny slept for two weeks on his floor," revealed Jones. "His wife kicked him out of his bed. Two weeks probably was not long enough, she was probably too soft on him. He is very contrite about it. He knows he made a serious mistake and he knows that if he makes it again things won't be looking so good.
"We looked at Marland and Denny together in terms of tries scored. The number of tries Denny has scored (seven) is far superior to the amount Marland Yarde has scored (four). We want a try-scorer on that wing, so Denny gets the nod."
Haskell was omitted on form - "a bit off the pace" - with Jones seeing him in person in Warwickshire last weekend, joking that the Wasps flanker might run him over with the JCB tractor he has parked outside his house.
"No doors are closed," said Jones with regard to future selection, although he did speak enthusiastically of the merits of Underhill, Curry and Simmonds, who plays at openside against Sale Sharks on Friday night, as well as favourably mentioning in dispatches the qualities of overlooked Exeter flanker Don Armand. Chris Robshaw, meanwhile, remains "our first-choice No 6".
The World Cup clock is ticking for all England players.
"This is a hard team to get into and it is going to get harder," said Jones.
