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The Springboks transformation that Jones wants England to mirror
Eddie Jones has insisted that England are on track to peak at the 2023 World Cup, the under-fire coach adamant he has no regrets about not blooding youngsters like Marcus Smith earlier and adding that his team are capable of enjoying a South Africa-like rise to the summit of world rugby.
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Defending his currently gloomy fortunes in charge of England, Jones referenced the transformation the Springboks had under Rassie Erasmus where they went from getting written off as contenders in 2018 to lifting the World Cup a year later.
England are fresh off the back of a second successive Guinness Six Nations where they managed just two wins from their five matches, but Jones has been fighting his corner since the round five defeat to France.
He first staged a breakfast time media debrief on Sunday from Paris before an RFU statement followed later that afternoon stated that the Australian’s job wasn’t under threat and that he had their full support.
Asked about Saturday night in Paris and whether he can see anybody beating France at the World Cup they will host next year, Jones replied: “You’re making judgments on a team now and the World Cup is in 14 months’ time.
“So if you were to make a judgment on South Africa 14 months before the (2019) World Cup, you would have said South Africa can’t win the World Cup, they had won 40 per cent of their Tests in the previous twelve months. Those sorts of judgments are premature.
“In 14 months, that will be the case for us – the team will change considerably and we will either get stronger or get weaker and our aim is going to make them stronger and you can’t know what is going to happen to France. You don’t know who is going to be available for them but certainly, the atmosphere (Saturday night) was intoxicating.
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“That is the great thing about sport, you don’t know when a team is going to peak and your aim as a coach is to peak them at the right time and our aim is to peak at the World Cup and I have said that consistently. That has been the plan and that is what we are going to do. Now whether France peaks too early as teams can do, no one really knows. Maybe there is more in them, may there is not.
“Your job as a coach is to make sure you maximise the cycle of that team, which I think we did with the 2016 to 2019 team. They came back and won the Six Nations in 2020,” continued Jones, reacting to the suggestion that he started the overhaul of his current team far too late unlike France when Fabien Galthie came in post the 2019 World Cup and immediately rung the changes.
“2021 was a difficult season for us with Saracens and covid and we probably didn’t handle that as well as we could but because of that we didn’t see a lot of young players in that period play and it was only post the break out of covid that we were able to see the young talent come through and the timing of bringing the young talent through has been correct.
“If I look at the performance of (Harry) Randall, (Marcus) Smith and (Freddie) Steward, particularly those three guys, and then some of the young forwards, (Alex) Dombrandt and (Sam) Simmonds, their performance has been at a consistently good level in the Six Nations so the timing of bringing those in was right.
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“And everyone has a different cycle. This job was always going to be challenging for this four-year cycle because we were always going to have a team that went a little longer and then you have got to break that team up and start again – but I think our timing is right.
“The World Cup is the pinnacle of success in world rugby. In the Six Nations, we are not thinking about the World Cup, we’re thinking about being at our best in the Six Nations but sometimes there is a progression for a team,” he added when quizzed why England seemingly can’t annually peak for the Six Nations while also still plotting long term for the World Cup.
“We have gone through a situation where we had a very settled team from 2016 to 2020 and then that team got old and we needed to change the team and we are rebuilding the team at the moment and going through those difficulties of rebuilding a team.
“We have got youngsters coming through who have great potential and we need to have faith in them, but sometimes they are a little bit inconsistent and therefore we will continue that process.”
Jones will now conduct a two-day Six Nations debrief with his staff at Pennyhill Park before they take a break ahead of the three-Test Australian tour in 16 weeks’ time. He insisted he won’t stay in the job beyond his current contract but stressed he retains the hunger to get the job done.
“There is no desire to go beyond ’23. My stated aim is to be the best coach I can be until 2023… If I didn’t have the petrol in the tank, why would I be sitting here?”
Comments on RugbyPass
Can’t wait for the article that talks about misogyny in Ireland. Somehow.
11 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.
11 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!!!
1 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 commentsNot a squeek out of Leinster for weeks about this match. So quiet. The first team have been quitely building for this encounter under Nienaber’s direction. All fresh, all highly motivated. They are expecting a season’s best performance from Northhampton. They will match that. They will be fresher and apparently they will have 80,000 out of the 83,000 shouting for them. I do expect Northhampton to turn up big time. Not to be missed. On a tangent it is evident how the loss of a few Premiership teams has in some respect helped other Premiership teams and England. More quality over less teams makes the teams better, which has a knock on effect on England. Not the only factor contributing to England’s rise but one of them.
5 Go to commentsOur very own monster teddy bear Ox😍💪
17 Go to comments