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
Haha lads lads lads, that’s how you have a holiday In Majorca
2 Go to commentshit on Lynagh was defo late and card-worthy. The other 2 are bang on OK. Hurts you at Test level if youre timing is off and the nostrils are flared. Jerry C knew when to lean in on one, Finau just needs to keep his discipline and head straight.
5 Go to commentsSlade was exceptional against Gloucester. Not only was he doing the classic Slade stuff of running amazing lines and timing passes to perfection to put his wingers into space, he was kicking goals, flying off the line smashing people and crashing into rucks like a flanker… his hair even looked on point. 😍
1 Go to commentsThat’s really sad, hope everyone involved is ok. At least he had pants on.
2 Go to commentsTo be fair it was nowhere bear the Leinster first team (for which, btw, Leinster copped nothing like the outrage that Jake White did for sending a rotated team to the UK). But it’s fun to watch the Stormers doing their thing. They are attracting big, diverse crowds of young fans, and deservedly so. Great to see.
1 Go to commentsIt might be legal but he’s sailing pretty close to the wind. Not a lot needs to go wrong for Finau to end up in the bin. Was it late? Not quite, but borderline. High? A couple of CM within the laws, no room for error with that one. Did he wrap the arms? There was a token effort to wrap one arm, the intent was clearly to hit with the shoulder. So yeah, it’s legal, just. But as we all know, a very slight change in the dynamics could easily have him seeing red. Hopefully not when it really matters.
5 Go to commentsCan we also show some love for Tane Edmed’s fantastic draw and pass? Put his body on the line and committed the defender before letting go of that pass. Flawless skill.
5 Go to commentsYou forget this is Rassie Erasmus who is still holding the Springbok keys. Even with Felix Jones orchestrating a really tight RWC SF last year. It still wasn't enough to get England past their particular Springbok Monkey in world cups. The reason is FJ was going off of what they did in 2019 not necessarily adapting to current Springboks. So yes, Australia can get passed England because let's be honest, England have a one track strategy, Springboks do not. Even with rush defense I wouldn't be surprised if Rassie continually tweaks it. Also bear in mind Rassie is happy to sacrifice a few mid year and inter World Cup matches to pin point how opposition plays and how to again tweak strategies to get his Springboks in peak performance for the next World Cup. As much as most teams like to win games in front of them and try to win everything, Rassie always makes sure to learn and train for the greatest showdown International Rugby has to offer. Tbh, most people remember World Cup wins and ignore intermediate losses as a result but will remember also WC losses, Ireland, even if they won games in the interim. So even if games are won against the Springboks, it's likely Rassie is just getting a feel for how opposition is moving and adapt accordingly…in time. For Rassie, a loss is never a loss because he uses it as a chance to learn and improve. Sometimes during a game, again like the England match in last year's Semi Final.
7 Go to commentsDanny don't care. He pretends to care but he don't. He says all this stuff to justify his reasoning but no one can claim that legitimately. He knew exactly what he was doing and wondered if his old team mate would overlook it, which he did. Ref has got to be sidelined or properly trained. It's one thing for refs to move up the ranks but if it was me I would require refs to either have played in different clubs or not at all having the temptation to bias in high stakes games like this. This has got to be stamped out. But then again World Rugby is so destroying the game of rugby in an attempt to be more “safe” and “concussion free”. What they are doing is making it more infuriating for the fans and more difficult for the refs to officiate evenly and consistently. It's fast become Australian Rules football. If guys don't want concussions, they should have played chess. Stop complaining you oldies of the game. When they played the game was vastly heavier hitting than it is now but of course they can't see that.
2 Go to commentsJa, why do Bulls get flack for not bringing their best but Leinster never bring their best and it goes “unnoticed”?
4 Go to commentsIt’ll be very interesting to see how Razor’s AB’s handle the new England rush D. It’s basically the Bok recipe they copied, so if England goes well then we know most likely the Boks will go well too. If England cops a hiding then we’ll have to study and adapt.
7 Go to commentsTypical trait of an australian is to moan. Goes well with there lack of humbleness as evident by the Reds bench on the weekend.
5 Go to commentsSBW’s bro’town commentary and lazy default to hyperbole should be ignored, a technical analyst he is not. Sotutu is a good player when games get goosey loosey, high skill set that fans of Zinzan recall with starry eyes. But you need power and mongrel at no8 in the Test arena and Sotutu gets found wanting there, much like Akira Ioane. No8’s like Zinzan and Ardie have bucketloads of mongrel and power and tenacity which allow the skill sets to flourish.
12 Go to commentsAn inside pass to attacker on the angle can make a drift defence look lead footed. Relies on fleet footed forward/s to get across from the breakdown. An argument for the smaller faster 7 perhaps?
7 Go to commentsSensational tackle. The reds one was late and rightly penalised. The other two were simultaneous with the pass. If nitpicking TMOs can’t find fault there clearly isn’t any.
5 Go to commentsBrumbies fully deserved their win on the back of their physicality and desire to control the ball. Xavier Numia, Asafo Aumua and Tyrel Lomax should be the ABs starting front row when we start our test schedule. They have “come of age” and have bested all they have faced as well as been dominant with ball in hand in making the gainline. With De Groot, Tamaiti Williams and Fletcher Newell backed up by Taukei'aho and Cody Taylor there's not an international front row that can trouble us. Can't wait to face the Boks over there, won't be no one point game this time.
7 Go to commentsKinda strange that he wasn’t with a premiership team or a higher level of rugby? Start playing late or something? With that kind of size and athleticism you’d think someone would have picked him up?
2 Go to commentsShows how much attitude matters. Last week the Brumbies got done, this week they dominated the tournament leaders, who were likely thinking they could cruise to victory.
7 Go to commentsA Turtle has more pace and leg drive than Owen Franks, so it’s a good thing he only had to run 90 metres for that try.
2 Go to commentsOh Tamati Tua was in the vastly over-rated Leon MacDonalds Blues system? Well, no wonder he was wasted, much like Emoni Narawa and Jacob Ratumaitavuki-Kneepkens under MacDonald. now look at them. Good thing Tua isn’t eligible, the Aussies latch on to any player who isn’t tied down.
7 Go to comments