Eddie Jones expects Owen Farrell to rule through fear as captain in South Africa next month but believes the playmaker cannot repair the north-south divide within the England squad alone.

Farrell takes over from the absent Dylan Hartley for the three-Test tour against the Springboks and Jones has already expressed concerns of a lack of unity with the England squad. Of the captains he has worked with, Jones believes Farrell is most like George Gregan, the former Australia scrum-half who led the Wallabies to the 2003 World Cup final.

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Jones said Gregan’s greatest asset was that, “he demanded stuff from the team and they were frightened not to give it to him”. He sees the same qualities in Farrell, who has lost his only match as captain – away to France during the Six Nations. “George Gregan was super on the field but not as good off the field. He is probably close to the mark so we need to find people who can work off the field to help Owen,” Jones said.

Asked how England can repair the schisms Jones perceives to have formed, he added: “Having strong leadership definitely helps – having a leader who can unite groups. Because within our team you’ve got different groups and it’s how you unite all those guys to play for one single purpose.

“You go to the north of England and the south of England and for me it is like going to two different countries. Then you go to the south-west and that is a different country again and they have got different ideas of what is right and what is wrong and none of them is right.”

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Jones admitted he does not know if Hartley will ever return as the England captain but with a record of 23 wins in 27 matches, the coach admitted it will take Farrell time to get up to speed, highlighting the learning curves experienced by World Cup winning captains such as Martin Johnson and John Eales.

“None of them started out great captains, they all started out relatively poor captains,” Jones said. “You don’t expect a captain immediately to be this all-conquering figure. It takes time, it takes effort and it takes patience. Owen has got the job for South Africa, so he has five weeks to work through, find his own style, influence the team and we will see how he goes.

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“He is a completely different character to Dylan. He has a different cultural background. Dylan is from Rotorua, Owen is from Wigan. They think of things differently, they look at things differently. Owen will put his own stamp on the team and we want him to do that.”

Jones revealed he does not have a contingency plan in place if his defence coach, Paul Gustard, leaves to take up a position with Harlequins. “I don’t have one for every staff member. If a situation arises then I’ll deal with it,” he said. “Everyone is different. Some people want to be a head coach, some people want to be an assistant coach their whole life. I’m not a career development coach. My job is to win at international level. I appoint the best coaches I can find and then they work with me and we try to win games of rugby.”