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'In their psyche, their DNA... to change is difficult for England': Eddie Jones
By Josh Raisey
Former England coach Eddie Jones has said that the pressure is no longer on England to “play better rugby” after their 12-match winning streak came to a shuddering halt at the hands of Scotland and Ireland, rather the pressure is now just to win.
Jones, who coached England to an 18-match winning streak between 2016 and 2017, said that there are “cycles” in English rugby, “where you win and then the pressure is to play better rugby.”
While he believes that pressure would not have got to current head coach Steve Borthwick, he said it would have “affected the players”. However, speaking on his Rugby Unity podcast, he asserted that it is not in England’s DNA to play expansive rugby, and they are better suited to “constraining” rugby.
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England were credited with playing attractive rugby on the way to the 2019 World Cup final, coached by Jones, but the Australian said that, when looking across the spread of rugby history, there have only been “very small periods where they’ve been able to do it,” citing Clive Woodward’s tenure as head coach as another period.
But back-to-back losses to Scotland and Ireland in the Guinness Six Nations, where England were comprehensively beaten in both encounters, means the pressure is now simply to win for England by any way possible.
The Japan boss has also tipped Borthwick to make a change at fly-half for the round four clash with Italy in Rome on Saturday, which will inevitably bring a change in style for England, after George Ford was made the “scapegoat for the losses”.
Ford, who played extensively at fly-half for England under Jones, has come under scrutiny following the defeats for failing to convert territorial advantages into points. While he has been labelled a scapegoat by Jones, he is far from the only person to be criticised over the past week.
“They’ve obviously been going well — 12 wins in a row — playing with a lot of clarity, a lot of aggression,” Jones said.
“The last couple of games will certainly give them the opportunity to change course again. They probably thought they were going in the right direction. A lot of it came on the back of two good wins in Argentina with an under-strength squad, of which George Ford did marvellously well. Now he’s had two average games and he seems to be the scapegoat for the losses, so he’s out. That’ll bring in a new 10, and the new 10 will play slightly differently, so they’ll have to change their game again.
“The pressure for England, when they got to those 12 wins, the pressure was to start playing better rugby. In England, with the mass media and social media combined, there are a lot of strong voices out there. It certainly wouldn’t have affected Steve, but it would have affected the players. They felt the need to play a more balanced game of rugby, not an absolute kick-to-run game. Now the pressure will be to win. Everyone will be happy — it doesn’t matter how they win. If they kick the ball 50 times, no one will care as long as they win.
“There are cycles in England where you win and then the pressure is to play better rugby. You try to play better rugby and then people ask why England can’t consistently play that way. I don’t think it’s in their DNA. If you look at the history of the game, they’ve had very small periods where they’ve been able to do it. Woodward had them playing like that for a very small period of time. Very small period of time. It’s in their psyche and their DNA to play that more constraining type of rugby, put people in small places and bully them to death. That’s the way they play their rugby best, and there’s nothing wrong with that. There are different ways to play rugby.
“This will be a crucial period for England — how quickly they go back to their DNA. If they start winning, they can rebuild and have another good shot at the World Cup. But it’s only small periods they can [play better rugby]. It gets back to the psyche of how they play the sport. Every team has a certain way they feel comfortable playing. You can change that slightly, but to change it remarkably is difficult for England.”
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