'This team is finished now': Eddie Jones ready for squad overhaul following England's World Cup final defeat
Eddie Jones has responded to England’s World Cup final defeat by South Africa by admitting the current team is “finished”.
A 32-12 rout in Yokohama on Saturday crushed the nation’s hopes of lifting the Webb Ellis Trophy for the second time after expectations had been raised by emphatic victories over Australia and New Zealand in the previous rounds.
Jones is contracted to remain England head coach until 2021 and the Rugby Football Union is expected to offer fresh terms that will take him to the next World Cup in France.
But a number of the 31-man squad taken to Japan are to be jettisoned for next year’s Six Nations as Jones begins rebuilding for the next assault on the global stage.
“I tell you what happens to teams – they evolve,” said Jones.
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“Some guys will lose desire, some guys will lose fitness, some guys will get injuries, and there’ll be young guys come through. So this team is finished now.
“There will be a new team made – we’ll make a new team for the Six Nations and that new team for the Six Nations will be the basis of going to the next World Cup.
“And I’ll have them for the first two years. And you’re so lucky because you’ve got me for another two years.”
In the build-up to the final Jones spoke about the importance of not “inventing shadows”, but as the dust began to settle on a deflating performance against South Africa that concluded an otherwise outstanding World Cup, he fell into that trap himself.
“I’m so proud of the players, the way they’ve prepared, the way they’ve worked,” Jones said.
You have to admire the ingenuity of @ExeterChiefs. As spotted by @MrChrisClarkson https://t.co/fVdlMJ38QK
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) November 3, 2019
“They’re great ambassadors for the sport and great ambassadors for England and I’m disappointed there’s such a negative attitude about our performance.
“We’ve taken a team that couldn’t get out of the pool at the last World Cup and got beaten in the final, but there’s all this negativity about their performance. I find it incredible, I find it incredible.
“Remember three weeks ago I was going to get the sack. There was going to be blood on the walls at Twickenham.
“Well, we finished ahead of 18 other teams. We weren’t good enough against South Africa, we weren’t good enough. Sorry. I apologise. What do you want me to say?
“What do you want me to say? Tell me what you want me to say. We weren’t good enough, we got beaten by a better team.
“I’ve been coaching 23 years, it happens periodically. You think you’ve got a team right and ready to go and for some reason they don’t perform to the level you expect.
“Why, I don’t know. I’ve spoken to a lot of experienced coaches about it and everyone says the same thing, you just don’t know. You’re better off just putting that game to the side and get on with it.”
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The foundations for England’s defeat were laid by an overwhelmed scrum that conceded six penalties in one of the bleakest days for a traditional source of Red Rose strength.
“It’s sport. We’ve got 23 individuals, they’ve got 23 individuals and the psychological level of teams is never constant. They are always changing. And we got caught,” Jones said.
“They won a significant area of the game which was the scrum which tended to trickle down into the rest of the game and then you are battling to get on the front foot.
“We couldn’t get out of it. We tried to break it and sometimes you lose your wicket, which happened. Full credit to South Africa they scrummed well and that’s the game.
“And if you can’t get on the front foot then you look like a team that lacks ideas, lacks energy, looks tired. All those things come into play.
“The reality is something wasn’t right and we couldn’t fix it on the field. And that happens.”
– Press Association
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The Chiefs definitely didn’t win ugly. They had the superior scrum, a dominant lineout, and their defence was excellent once the Waratahs scored their two tries (thanks to some lucky refereeing calls mind you). They put pressure on the Waratahs lineout throughout the game, and the mind boggles as to why the referee did not award a yellow card or a penalty try against the Waratahs for repeated scrum infringements on their own try line before Narawa’s first try. And the Chiefs were slick with their passing and running angles on attack. It was a dominant performance all round, even with many questionable refereeing decisions.
1 Go to commentsWasnt late. Ref 2 assistants andTMO all saw it so who are you to say it was?
3 Go to commentsAre the Brumbies playing the Blues twice in a row?
3 Go to commentsBig difference from the Saders. Forwards really muscled up and laid a solid platform. Scooter brought some steel and I liked the loosie combination. Newell has been rather disappointing this season but stepped up big time - happy also to see Franks dot down. He should do that more often! Reihana had a good game and there seems to be more flair and invention with him in the saddle. McNicoll plays well from the back and is reliable plus inventive when he joins the line. Keep it up chaps!
3 Go to comments🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
30 Go to commentsJe suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
3 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusaders , you can keep going.
3 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
30 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
30 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
30 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to comments