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Eddie Jones addresses claims his England future is on the line
Eddie Jones admits his future lies in the hands of Twickenham but the head coach remains convinced he is the right man to lead England to the next World Cup.
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A fifth place finish sealed by Saturday’s 32-18 defeat to Ireland at the Aviva Stadium completed a dismal Guinness Six Nations that has placed Jones’ reign under intense scrutiny.
The Rugby Football Union’s customary post-Championship review will begin in the coming days with no timeframe set for its completion.
The PA news agency understands that Jones will be assessed on his historical achievements as well as the outcome of the tournament, with his success in plotting a route out of a similar slump in 2018 strengthening his position.
“Our coaching team and leadership team will review our performance in the Six Nations and we know the England team will continue to grow and learn from this,” a Rugby Football Union spokesperson said.
Senior players Maro Itoje, Mako Vunipola and Jonny May have given the Australian emphatic endorsements, insisting it is the players who must be held accountable for the reverse Triple Crown of losses to Scotland, Wales and Ireland.
When asked if he is the right man to take England forward, Jones replied “that’s for other people to answer, not for me to answer”, but added that he is “100 per cent” confident he can perform the role and that the Six Nations outcome had not made him question himself.
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“Everyone is entitled to their opinion and I’m sure they’re angry. We expect to win and we expect to play better than we did,” said Jones in addressing the frustration of supporters.
“No one is more disappointed than the team and ourselves with what happened and the fans have got the right to be disappointed. We’re gutted by it.”
England entered the Six Nations as champions after compiling an eight-Test winning run which also secured the Autumn Nations Cup, but cracks were already evident as performances failed to match results.
“Unfortunately I thought we were due for a period like this. Every team goes through it,” Jones said.
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How many of these guys will make the Lions squad? ? pic.twitter.com/8yDqnpZM8C
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) March 22, 2021
“International rugby, particularly at Six Nations level, you get to a certain stage and the success makes you a bit weak. You need to fight through that.
“It’s hard to be at the top of the tree all the time. And so the team goes through cycles of success and cycles of failure and I think that’s a normal part of sport.
“I knew that a tough period was coming, because we’ve had a good run, we’ve won games we probably shouldn’t have won
“And you get on the other side of the ledger where you lose games that you should have won and it becomes tough. We’re in that period now.”
May is one of several squad members to vigorously back Jones and the Gloucester wing admits Saturday’s subdued outing in Dublin will leave lasting scars.
“As players we’ll put our hands up because we go into games well prepared, with a good gameplan, good understanding,” May said.
Alright, how many of them will actually make it though? ? pic.twitter.com/QPgSXq6Iud
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) March 22, 2021
“Tactically, physically, mentally we’re prepared extremely well. We have the best players, staff resources, players I feel. This one is on the players, so we need to sort it.
“There are moments in games that take a bit of your soul almost. And they sit with you. This campaign has been as tough as it comes.
“I pretty much have felt sick for the whole lot of it because it’s been tough. That’s a positive because I care and the team cares. It means a lot to us.
“The regret is that we couldn’t make the people at home who watch us and expect us to win, happy. And I’m sorry about that.”
Comments on RugbyPass
🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
26 Go to commentsJe suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
1 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusades , you can keep going.
1 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
26 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
26 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
26 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
26 Go to commentsHaving overseas possessions in 2024 is absurd. These Frenchies should have to give the New Caledonians their freedom.
21 Go to commentsBell injured his foot didn’t he? Bring Tupou in he’ll deliver when it counts. Agree mostly but I would switch in the Reds number 8 Harry Wilson for Swinton and move Rob Valentini to 6 instead. Wilson is a clever player who reads the play, you can’t outmuscle the AB’s and Springboks, if you have any chance it’s by playing clever. Same goes for Paisami, he’s a little guy who doesn’t really trouble the likes of De Allende and Jordie Barrett. I’d rather play Carter Gordon at 12 and put Michael Lynagh’s boy at 10. That way you get a BMT type goalkicker at 10 and a playmaker at 12. Anyways, just my two cents as a Bok supporter.
14 Go to commentsThanks Brett, love your articles which are alway pertinent. It’s a difficult topic trying to have a panel adjudicating consistently penalties for red card issues. Many of the mitigating reasons raised are judged subjectively, hence the different outcomes. How to take away subjective opinions?
11 Go to comments