Eddie Jones faces watershed moment in Cape Town – Andy Goode
The definition of insanity is doing the same things over and over again but expecting different results and Eddie Jones’ England are guilty of repeating the same old mistakes.
On Saturday they were on the wrong side of the penalty count again, ill-discipline cost them again, they lost the gainline battle again, they were physically outmuscled again and, by all accounts, they had prepared for the second Test in exactly the same way as the first.
The third Test against South Africa this weekend is a dead rubber in terms of the outcome of the series but it is a watershed moment for Eddie Jones. He has to start making significant changes and not just in terms of his selection.
He’s held his hands up last week by writing a letter to Bath owner Bruce Craig and apologising for the comment he made about him being the Donald Trump of rugby but incidents like that one suggest he thinks he’s untouchable. He isn’t and a bit more humility wouldn’t go amiss.
Jones is backing himself into a corner in terms of his prickliness with the press but the primary question marks over him are no longer about his dealings with the media, they’re about how he can improve the team and get them back on track because they’ve gone seriously off the rails.
A team and a coach that won 24 out of 25 matches over the course of a two-year period as recently as four months ago surely has the ability to bounce back from this but defeat this weekend would be a seventh in a row, if you include the Barbarians loss, and equal the record for most consecutive defeats in England’s 147-year history so something is clearly very wrong right now.
That record-equalling run of 18 consecutive Test victories maybe did make the England camp feel bulletproof but history is repeating itself in terms of Eddie Jones’ coaching career and he needs to start taking a different approach if he wants to be successful at the 2019 World Cup.
Australia is the only job he’s had in his long coaching career where he’s hung around for longer than three years and plenty of journalists Down Under predicted when he got the England job that he’d be great for two years before the wheels would come off and that’s exactly what’s happened.
I think every team in sport is a direct reflection of their coach and leader in many ways and I hope this group of players hasn’t seen how Eddie Jones has conducted himself in the media and decided that they can just do as they please, but Ben Youngs’ interview after the game on Saturday and some of the stories of altercations with fans do hint at worrying cultural issues within the camp.
On the field, England are making the same mistakes time after time and a lot of them are down to ill-discipline so Eddie Jones has got to take a hard stance with that. Maro Itoje flung a kick at Faf de Klerk and Mako Vunipola slapped Pieter-Steph du Toit within a few seconds of each other in a couple of high-profile examples and you just can’t do that.
There are some individual errors that he can’t legislate for but he has to look at himself in terms of what he can do to start improving these players again and whether there are cultural or coaching issues that are leading to the lack of discipline.
And, it’s worth reiterating the point from last week that he needs to take responsibility for getting elements of the preparation on this tour badly wrong. Duane Vermeulen, who’s been playing in France for a few years, admitted after the match that the altitude really affected him and South Africa have been training at altitude, so it has definitely been a factor.
It’s the end of a long, hard season for these England players as well and the intensity they’re asked to train at is still remarkable, so overtraining is another issue that needs addressing.
I think he’d get a lot of respect from players, fans and media if he held his hands up and admitted that he’s made mistakes and is part of the reason that England are in the mess that they’re currently in but it doesn’t look like he’s going to.
It’ll be a long wait until November if England lose this series 3-0 and a difficult task just to rebuild the confidence levels ahead of their first two autumn internationals against South Africa and New Zealand, let alone improving the areas of England’s game that need work.
However, if England can get a win back down at sea level in Cape Town and there are a few fresh faces who come in and put their hands up for selection moving forwards, at least some of the doom and gloom will be lifted.
Billy and Mako Vunipola have gone home this week because of injury and family reasons respectively and, on top of replacing those two, I think Danny Cipriani has to be given a start ahead of George Ford who has gone missing after good starts in both of the first two Tests.
I think form players from the Premiership this season such as Dan Robson and Sam Simmonds have to be given an opportunity to show what they can do as well and I don’t think changing the whole team would be helpful but I’d make eight changes to the side to freshen things up.
My England XV to face South Africa in the 3rd Test at Newlands on Saturday
15 Elliot Daly
14 Jonny May
13 Alex Lozowski
12 Owen Farrell
11 Denny Solomona
10 Danny Cipriani
9 Dan Robson
1 Joe Marler
2 Luke Cowan-Dickie
3 Harry Williams
4 Maro Itoje
5 Joe Launchbury
6 Brad Shields
7 Tom Curry
8 Sam Simmonds
The RFU has issued the briefest of statements reaffirming that it “supports Eddie Jones and his coaching team”. In football you see those statements all the time and then the coach is sacked the next week but nobody is really calling for Eddie Jones’ head here.
I’m certainly not doing that but I do think he needs to take a close look in the mirror, be honest with himself and change a few things that he’s doing as the head coach in order to get England back on track.
Comments on RugbyPass
guys its fine! he understands why he did what he did and has taken accountability for it; why should he have to be accountable to a court? after all he did was abuse people in person - its not as if he was engaging in _online_ abuse!
1 Go to commentsChiefs flanker Kaylum Boshier yellow-carded for collapsing the scrum as it rolled towards the line. It was a maul….
1 Go to commentsyou know, i’m a leinster fan so I want Northampton to lose and it is gonna be tuff with Cortney lawes, Alex michell and the other guys🏉 lets go leinster🏉
1 Go to commentsWelcome to the Pro ranks. Those hard teams of old do hit the sole better though. its a dog fight at the top.
6 Go to commentsCan someone fill me in please, I've read a number of Ben Smith articles now and it seems he's got something again South Africa? Surely, this game was over and done with 7 months ago. Can't we have something a bit more interesting and relevant, or is this the calibre of journalist on this site?
227 Go to commentsNot sure what the Welsh are moaning about. They’ve had far more players off England, than England have had off Wales. Guys like Josh Hathaway and Kane James will play for Wales in the end. And they’ll be fsr better players for having played in the Gallagher Premiership, than they ever would have been had they stayed mired in the shambles that is Welsh rugby.
3 Go to commentsThis is all being blown totally out of proportion. First of all, since half the Irish team isn’t Irish - it’s very likely that none of the Irish players said that at all and, thus, we’re not being arrogant. Second, since half the Irish team is Kiwi - it’s very likely the Kiwi players were predicting a NZ SA World Cup final. Which they got spot on. Good on them!
163 Go to commentsAha. An Irishman with logic! Follow the flow: - Ireland peaks with a >80% win record between 2020 and 2023. And then… - crashes out of another QF at the WC; - Beat a poor French Team; - Beat 6N wooden spoonists Italy; - Play shite against eventual wooden spoonists Wales; - Lose against the most boring, “the worst English team ever” , a team widely regarded as unable to attack; - scrape through against Scotland. This article, No - Trimble, is on the money! Except for one glaring statement: _The Springboks have a few aces in the hole in this debate being the reigning world champions and official world number ones_ There is no debate, boys and girls. There it is. In black and white. “Reigning World Champions and OFFICIAL world number ones”. Come July, the overrated Andy Farrell and this overhyped team are going to enter into a world of hurt.
86 Go to commentsI’d like to know what homoerotic events Daniel enjoyed at 8th man. I clearly missed out!
19 Go to commentsThis article is missing some detail, like some actual context or info about what led to him abusing the ref.
2 Go to comments*They used to say that football is a gentleman sport watched by hooligans and rugby is a hooligan sport watched by gentlemen. How times have changed.*
3 Go to commentsexcept ot wasnt late wasnt late at all so dont know why you all saying its late he commits early and its your fault fir not paying attention
29 Go to commentsNot sure the Bulls need another average utility back in their ranks. Chamberlain has been ok for the Sharks but is by no means an X-Factor player. Bulls bought several utility backs which they barely use. A typical example would be Henry Immelman who plays mostly Fullback. The Bulls however have rarely played him this year and he has played wing or centre. Bulls want to build depth but seems like they have too many surplus players
1 Go to commentsABs lost against a side playing without a hooker - The guy playing, had one shoulder. Line outs were a gimme for the ABs, and the last 8 minutes 14 played 14 against a team that had been smashed 3 weeks in a row… Yet with all that possession, with all that territory, with all the advantages they actually had, especially in the last 8 minutes, they couldn’t buy a point. Those last 8 minutes determined if they outplayed the Boks or not. History will show that the Boks completely outplayed the ABs, especially in those last 8 minutes, the business end of any rugby match
227 Go to commentsWould’ve, could’ve, should’ve, didn’t.
227 Go to commentsKok will become a fan favourite
1 Go to commentsI am really looking forward to Leigh Halfpenny playing his first Super rugby game for the Crusaders Playing a long side his former Welsh and Scarlets team mate Johnny McNicoll.Johnny has been playing great, back in a Crusaders jersey.The attack has strengthened big time. Also looking forward to David Havili at 10. David is a class act, it also allows Dallas McLeod to remain at 12. A good thing.
1 Go to commentsIf he had stopped insisting on playing in the backrow, instead of wing, where everyone told him he should, he would have been a Bok years ago….
11 Go to comments‘Salads don’t win scrums’ 😂 I love that.
19 Go to commentsCan’t wait for the article that talks about misogyny in Ireland. Somehow.
19 Go to comments