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The emotional family price paid by Eddie Jones during the coronavirus pandemic
Eddie Jones has revealed the personal cost of the coronavirus pandemic – the cancellation a trip home to Australia to celebrate his elderly mother’s 95th birthday.
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The England coach has planned to spend some time in Sydney at the end of the 2020 Guinness Six Nations. However, with the completion of the tournament thrown into chaos by the series of coronavirus-enforced postponements, Jones had to revise his post-campaign schedule and has instead hunkered down in Japan during the pandemic.
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Eddie Jones agrees England contract extension
Speaking on video conference following confirmation that his England contract had been extended through to the 2023 World Cup in France, Jones explained: “I was due at the end of the Six Nations to go home and visit my mother in Australia. It was her 95th birthday but given the situation, if I went back there I would have to self isolate.
“Then my wife wanted to be near her family so we came up to Japan and at the moment we’re just continually assessing the situation. I can do the job – as you see we do everything by video and technology now. We’d like to be back in the country [England] but we will just wait and see and wait for the appropriate time to come back.”
The pandemic hasn’t yet resulted in severe restrictions in Japan similar to the lockdown in Britain. “Not to that extent at the moment. Life is relatively normal, but they are anticipating another spurt so things are tightening up a little bit.”
Jones is due to lead England on a two-Test tour in Japan next July and while indications are the trip will fall victim to the pandemic and be called off similar to the Tokyo Olympics, RFU CEO Bill Sweeney said a final decision about the matches in Oita and Kobe won’t be taken until late April.
“I wouldn’t say absolutely that these tours are off,” explained the chief executive. “You would probably say it is a strong possibility. With the Olympics you have 113 nations and 11,000 athletes coming into Tokyo from all different parts of the world at different stages in the crisis so it is much harder to manage.
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“At least with a tour you have got two countries involved… it’s not definitely off but we have set ourselves a deadline to World Rugby to make a decision at the end of April. What has come out of this is an approach from all the unions north and south and World Rugby to restart with a blank sheet off paper and say these really are exceptional times.
“You can imagine there is god knows how many different contingency plans and different options you can put together should the July tours be off. It would be premature to say now are there favoured options amongst those.
“But there is a number we are looking at to ensure that when we are given the go-ahead to play that we will have the matches in place, we will have the ability for the fans to get back together, we will have the ability for the players to get back on the field and compete and we are going through that process now.”
Defeats to South Africa and France haven't knocked his chutzpahhttps://t.co/MaKW1VygOo
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) April 2, 2020
That’s a process which will resume with England knowing they have Jones in situ until the 2023 finals in France. Agreement was struck with the RFU before the start of the recent Six Nations and was due to be announced following the completion of England’s campaign in Rome.
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However, that March 14 Italian match was postponed and news of the Australian’s extension was soon put on the long finger due to lockdown measures implemented in Britain, a crisis that coincided with Jones accepting a short-term pay cut last week.
“The RFU showed the way,” he said. “I was really pleased how decisive they were and it was easy to make a decision to follow that. It’s a small thing personally you do to ensure we can get through that next period of time. Part of that is taking that salary cut.
“But the most important part is that the role we have to play once we can get back playing rugby, it’s going to be important that we get the game back together. There was a call before about the clubs struggling, the amateur clubs struggling, the community clubs struggling, and I’m sure there is going to be professional clubs that struggle.
“We have got make sure whatever form rugby takes post this that it’s in a stronger state than it was previously and that is the ambition of the rugby community now, to get everyone working back together and ensure the game is stronger when we get back playing.
“I couldn’t be more excited,” he added about his decision to extend his contract. “We have a great team. We played some really good rugby and are on the cusp of doing something really good. We have got a relatively young squad, full of growth, full of enthusiasm, and I was really pleased with the attitude of the squad during the Six Nations, particularly after the France game which was disappointing for everyone.
“As I explained before the performance was due to my poor coaching rather than the players’ performance. Then the rest of the Six Nations, I thought we played with a lot of endeavour and I can just see us taking rugby to a different level.
“That is what we want to do and that is why I’m so excited to be involved with this group of players – it’s just a great opportunity and it’s something I couldn’t turn my back on.
“We want to become a great team, we want to become one of those teams where people remember how you play over a period of time. That’s the aim I have as a coach. I want a team that plays a perfect game of rugby and I want a team that can be remembered as a great team.
“We have got the players within England to do that. The players have the hunger to do it. We have seen periods of time where they have done it, but we haven’t been able to do it consistently and the test off greatness is to do it consistently.
“With that comes results and if we are the greatest team then a World Cup medal is probably sitting in from of us. But our goal hasn’t changed from what I stated at the start of the cycle and it will continue to be the same.”
WATCH: England’s Mako Vunipola takes on Manu Vunipola in the RugbyPass FIFA 20 charity tournament
Comments on RugbyPass
It’s not up to Wales to support Georgian Rugby. That’s up to International Rugby and Georgia. I sympathise with Georgia’s decent attempt to create this fixture. But for Wales the proposed match up is just a potential stick to beat them with and a potential big psychological blow that young Welsh team doesn’t need. (I’m Irish BTW.)
2 Go to commentsCale certainly looks great in space, but as you say, he has struggled in contact. At 23 years old, turning 24 this year, he should be close to full physical maturity and yet there exists a considerable gap in the power and physicality required for international rugby. Weight doesn’t automatically equate to power and physicality either. Can he go from a player who’s being physically dominated in Super rugby to physically dominating in international rugby in 1 or 2 years? That’s a big ask but he may end up being a late bloomer.
27 Go to commentsIf rugby wants to remain interesting in the AI era then it will need to work on changing the rules. AI will reduce the tactical advantage of smart game plans, will neutralize primary attacking weapons, and will move rugby from a being a game of inches to a game of millimetres. It will be about sheer athleticism and technique,about avoiding mistakes, and about referees. Many fans will find that boring. The answer is to add creative degrees of freedom to the game. The 50-22 is an example. But we can have fun inventing others, like the right to add more players for X minutes per game, or the equivalent of the 2-point conversion in American football, the ability to call a 12-player scrum, etc. Not saying these are great ideas, but making the point that the more of these alternatives you allow, the less AI will be able to lock down high-probability strategies. This is not because AI does not have the compute power, but because it has more choices and has less data, or less-specific data. That will take time and debate, but big, positive and immediate impact could be in the area of ref/TMO assistance. The technology is easily good enough today to detect forward passes, not-straight lineouts, offside at breakdown/scrum/lineout, obstruction, early/late tackles, and a lot of other things. WR should be ultra aggressive in doing this, as it will really help in an area in which the game is really struggling. In the long run there needs to be substantial creativity applied to the rules. Without that AI (along with all of the pro innovations) will turn rugby into a bash fest.
24 Go to commentsSouth Africa rarely play Ireland and France on these tours. Mostly, England, Scotland and Wales. I wonder why
1 Go to commentsIt was a let’s-see-what-you're-made-of type of a game. The Bulls do look good when the opposition allows them to, but Munster shut them down, and they could not find a way through. Jake should be very worried about their chances in the competition.
2 Go to commentsHats off to Fabian for a very impressive journey to date. Is it as ‘uniquely unlikely’ as Rugby Pass suggests, given Anton Segner’s journey at the Blues?
1 Go to commentsSad that this was not confirmed. When administrators talk about expanding the game they evidently don’t include pathways to the top tier of rugby for teams outside of the old boys club. Rugby deserves better, and certainly Georgia does.
2 Go to commentsLions might take him on if they move on Van Rooyen but I doubt he will want to go back, might consider it a step backwards for himself. Sharks would take him on but if Plumtree goes on to win the challenge cup they will keep him on. Also sharks showing some promising signs recently. Stormers and Bulls are stable and Springboks are already filled up. Quality coach though, interesting to see where he ends up
1 Go to commentsAnd the person responsible for creating a culture of accountability is?
3 Go to commentsMore useless words from Ben Smith -Please get another team to write about. SA really dont need your input, it suck anyway.
264 Go to commentsThis disgraceful episode must result in management and coach team sackings. A new manager with worse results than previous and the coaching staff need to coached. Awful massacre led by donkeys.
1 Go to commentsInteresting article with one glaring mistake. This sentence: “And between the top four nations right now, Ireland, France, South Africa, and New Zealand…” should read: And between the top four nations right now, South Africa, Ireland, New Zealand and France…”. Get it right wistful thinkers, its not that hard.
24 Go to commentsHow did Penny get the gig anyway?
3 Go to commentsNice write up Nick and I would have agreed a week ago. However as you would know Cale & co got absolutely monstered by the Blues back row of Sotutu, Ioane and Papaliti and not all of these 3 are guaranteed a start in the Black jumper. He may need to put some kgs before stepping up, Spring tour? After the week end Joe will be a bit more restless. Will need to pick a mobile tough pack for Wales and hope England does the right thing and bashes the ABs. I like your last paragraph but I would bring Swinton, Hannigan into the 6 role and Bobby V to 8
27 Go to commentsThe Crusaders can still get in to the Play Off’s. The imminent return of outstanding captain Scott Barrett and his All Black team mate Codie Taylor will be a big boost.There are others like Tamaiti Williams too. Two home games coming up. Fellow Crusader fans get there and support these guys. I will be.
2 Go to commentsCant get more Wellington than Proctor.
2 Go to commentsWhy not let the media decide. Like how they choose the head coach. Like most of us we entrust the rugby system to choose. A rugby team includes the coaches. It's collective.
14 Go to commentsHi NIck, I have been very impressed with him and he seems a smart player who can see opportunities which Bobby V _(who must be an international 6_) doesn’t see or have the speed to take advantage of. If he continues to improve and puts on 5kgs then he could be a great 8. He is a bit taller than Keiran Reid at 1.93m and 111 kgs, so his skill set fits his body size and who knows where it will lead. I hope the spate of Achilles tendon issues have been dealt with by the S&C people. It’s been a very long time since Mark Loane and Kefu stood out at 8. The question is will we be able to hold onto him, if he does make it he will be pretty hot property. I disagree with the idea of letting them go to the Northern Hemisphere and then bring them back.
27 Go to commentsBilly Fulton 🤣🤣🤣🤣 garrrmon not even close
14 Go to commentsDoes the AI take into account refs? hahaha Seriously why not have two on field refs to avoid bias?
24 Go to comments