Eddie Jones to discuss England future with RFU
Eddie Jones will discuss his England future over dinner with Rugby Football Union (RFU) chief executive Bill Sweeney once the Guinness Six Nations is over.
Jones is contracted until next summer and Twickenham’s initial eagerness to extend the head coach’s tenure in the wake of last autumn’s march to the World Cup final appears to have cooled.
England signed off a Six Nations campaign truncated by the coronavirus-enforced postponement of their final match against Italy with a 33-30 victory over Wales at Twickenham that completed a first Triple Crown since 2016.
When asked if he will still be in the post beyond 2021 Jones replied “I don’t know”, but did reveal that a meeting with Sweeney is planned.
“We’ve got dinner organised in a couple of weeks so we may be able to chat about it. It must be his shout. I’ll take a Triple Crown to show him,” he said.
On the eve of the Six Nations, Jones stated that he would stay for as long as he felt the players were responding to his methods but after Wales were seen off he would only say “I’m still judging. I’ll judge for as long as I need to”.
Jones hinted at the toll taken by the Six Nations by reflecting on the lack of joy he gets from his role.
“I never enjoy coaching. Winning is a relief. Anyone who tells you they enjoy coaching is lying,” Jones said.
“All you do is coach hard. If you win you feel good for 24 hours and then you’re back into it. That’s all it is.
“It’s a choice you make. You get to coach these extraordinary, gifted players. You give them something that helps develop them as a player and a person.
“The joy you get from that is unbelievable, but generally any coach who says they find coaching enjoyable is probably not telling the truth.”
Succinct. https://t.co/fwoFIqPtWu
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) March 8, 2020
Were it not for a defeat to France in the opener, for which Jones takes responsibility for physically under preparing his team, England would stand one win away from the Grand Slam.
Victory over Scotland at Murrayfield in atrocious conditions, a rout of Ireland and roller-coaster win against Wales placed them back in the title mix, but the championship has been a water-treading exercise that has failed to build on the World Cup.
“I haven’t got any regrets over France. What I do know is that we are in a position where we can win the championship and that’s where I want to be,” Jones said.
“I just think you can’t put a figure on it but I think the team is growing, we have that feeling that we are growing.
“We played a tough game against Wales, we played some brilliant rugby against Ireland last week, played some sensible rugby against Scotland after what was a disappointing game against France.
“And that was 100 per cent my fault for the preparation we gave the players. I’m really pleased with the way we finished the tournament.”
Press Association
Comments on RugbyPass
If 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.
16 Go to commentsI would like to see a rule change, when the attacking team is held up over the try line, by allowing the defensive team to restart a goal line drop out releases the pressure for the defensive team, but what if the attacking team had to restart a tap 5m out from the defensive team it gives the attacking team to apply more pressure, there are endless options for the attacking side and it will keep the fans in suspence.
2 Go to commentsLess modern South African males predictably triggered.
16 Go to commentsMy heart is with Quins, but the head is convinced Toulouse have too much. Ntamack is back, his timing and wisdom has been missed.
1 Go to commentsWow, what a starting line up for the Sharks) Tasty up front,kremer vs Tshituka or venter …fiery ,,Lavannini ,,will he knobble etzebeth? Biggest game for belleau?
1 Go to commentsIt was rubbish to watch, Blues weren’t even present. Did what they had to do, nothing more. Should be better next week against canes.
1 Go to commentsI’ve just noticed that this match has an all-French refereeing team. Surely a game like this ought to have a neutral ref? Although looking at the BBC preview of the Saints game, Raynal is also down as reffing that - so there may be some confusion about who is reffing what.
1 Go to commentsIf Havili can play anywhere in the back line, why not first 5. #10.
11 Go to commentsThe dressing room had already left for their summer break before they ran out in Dublin that year, and that’s on the coach. Franco Smith has undoubtedly made progress, particularly their maul, developing squad players and increasing squad depth. And against a very tight budget too. That said they were too lightweight last year and got found out against both Toulon and Munster in consecutive games. Better this season so far but they’ve developed something of a slow start habit occasionally, most notably losing at home to Northampton who played them at their own game. Play offs will ultimately show whether there has been tangible progress on last year, or not…!
2 Go to commentsAustralian Rugby has been a disaster, by not incorporating learning from previous successful campaigns. QLD Reds 2011 - Waratahs 2014. Players, coaches and administrators appoint there representatives for scheduled meetings, organisation’s agreement’s assessments and correspondence. This why a unified Rugby Union under one entity works. Every Rugby nation has taken that path. Was most difficult in the Northern hemisphere with over 100 years of club rugby before the game become professional. Took a lot of humility for those unions to eventually work together.
7 Go to commentsThough Wilson’s sacking was pretty brutal, it wasn’t just down to that Leinster game; Glasgow had a lot of 2nd half collapses that season, in the URC and Europe, and only just scraped into the playoffs. Franco Smith has definitely been an improvement, some players are delivering far more than they did under Wilson.
2 Go to commentsjesus - that front 5!
1 Go to commentsShould be an absolute cracker of a game! Will be great to see DuPont & Ntamack in tandem once again🔥
1 Go to commentsBest team ever…. To have played? These guys are still pressure chokers. Came nowhere when it counted. What a joke
81 Go to commentsMusk defends anonymous terrorism, fascism, threats against individuals and children etc etc But a Rugby club account….lock ‘em up!!!
2 Go to commentsActually the era defining moment came a few years earlier. February 2002 to be precise, when Michael D Higgins as finance minister at the time introduced his sports persons tax relief bill to the dial. As the politicians of the day stated “It seems to be another daft K Club frolic born in Kildare amongst the well-paid professional jockeys with whom the Minister plays golf” and that the scheme represented “a savage uncaring vision of Ireland and one that should be condemned”. The irfu and Leinster would be nowhere near the position they are in today without this key component of the finances.
5 Go to commentsIt is crystal clear that people who make such threats on line should be tried and imprisoned. Those with responsibility in social media companies who don’t facilitate this should be convicted. In real life, I have free speech to approach someone like Reinach and verbally threaten him. I am risking a conviction or a slap but I could do it. In the old days, If someone anonymously threatened someone by letter the police would ask and use evidence from the postal system. Unlike the Post, social media companies have complete instant and legal access to the content in social media. They make money from the data, billions. Yet, they turn a blind eye to terrorism, Nazi-ism and industrial levels of threats against individuals including their address and childrens schools being published online all from ananoymous accounts not real people. They claim free speech. Free speech for anonymous trolls/voilent thugs threatening people under false names? The fault is with the perps but also social media companies who think anonymous personas posting death threats constitutes free speech.
2 Go to commentsSo if this ain’t the best Irish team ever then who exactly is? I don’t remember any other Irish team being this good & winning a series in the Land of the Long White Cloud. Yes I may rip them often for 8 X QF RWC exits & twice not even making it to the QF, but they’re a damn good team who many think can only improve, including me!
81 Go to comments