'Unacceptable ' - Dallaglio leads England 2003 heavyweights calling for change
Lawrence Dallaglio has demanded that England make changes to their coaching team and playing squad in response to an “unacceptable” Guinness Six Nations from Eddie Jones’ men.
Descent from champions to a fifth-place finish was confirmed by Saturday’s 32-18 collapse against Ireland in Dublin, with a string of poor performances placing Jones’ position as head coach under intense scrutiny.
Dallaglio, a former red rose captain and 2003 World Cup winner, believes Jones must act decisively to engineer an exit from the current slump.
“Eddie is in his sixth year with England. He has done some very, very good things,” Dallaglio told BT Sport.
“England have won three of the last six Six Nations campaigns. They got to a World Cup final (in 2019) and were well beaten in that.
“Finishing fifth, losing to Wales, Scotland and Ireland is unacceptable for England. Things have to change.
Sir Clive has gone for a real hipster pick at No.8: https://t.co/PnhzGOoKgb
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) March 21, 2021
“If Eddie Jones isn’t going to change, if he’s not going to be removed as head coach, then he needs to bring in some fresh faces on both the playing side and the coaching side.
“You can argue the team needs freshening up in terms of selection. England have gone backwards over the last six months and he needs to address that, he’s the head coach.”
Former red rose wing Ugo Monye described it as “perhaps the end of an era for this squad” and has called for a “brand new philosophy” to be introduced.
Sir Clive Woodward insists Jones must face a vigorous Rugby Football Union inquest after the Six Nations exposed “something very wrong” with England.
Woodward, the architect of the nation’s 2003 World Cup triumph, believes an impressive round-four victory over France has been the only interruption to a period of ongoing decline since Japan 2019.
'At the end of the day, Eddie can’t play the game for us.'https://t.co/lNssNiO7bP
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) March 21, 2021
“It’s time for Eddie Jones to look in the mirror, not the window,” Woodward said in his column in the Mail on Sunday.
“Somebody at the RFU – although I’m not sure who is qualified to do so – needs to ask some sharp questions of him. There is no respected rugby ‘brain’ asking the difficult questions.
“I would like to say I was surprised but deep down I’m not. I had hoped last week was a fresh start but there is something very wrong at present.
“The graph has been going steadily downwards since that World Cup semi-final win over New Zealand with just an occasional blip or pulse of hope.”
'Everyone got so carried away with that New Zealand [semi-final] game… Eddie needs to look in the mirror and that’s the only person you’ve got to blame.'https://t.co/bEJ9ozDwcl
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) March 20, 2021
Former England scrum-half Matt Dawson echoes Woodward’s view that not all is well in the camp and also urged Jones to stop looking for excuses.
“Look what they did to France when they beat them in the fourth round and look what France are doing generally. England are at that level,” Dawson told BBC Sport.
“They are up with Wales and France so it is unacceptable that they lost three games in the Six Nations.
REF WATCH: "The restart claimed by Maro Itoje at which Sinckler took an accidental finger to the eye saw outstanding Ireland’s Tadgh Beirne show a fabulous ability to use the laws to his advantage."
Paul Smith ???https://t.co/Lc6ASodEWa
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) March 21, 2021
“I know that head coach Eddie Jones will come up with excuses and say England cannot play like that every week.
“I think England have got to work it out themselves and it comes from the top. My concern is that it is not as joined up as we are all led to believe.”
Comments on RugbyPass
Geez plenty of time to come right before test season starts. Dont panic mr Mannering!!!!!
1 Go to commentsGreat read Nick. The Reds really have been great to watch this year, and the improvement of not only the players you mention, but the squad in general has been obvious. The Reds 10/12 play making axis is a nice counterpoint to the 10/15 partnership at the Brumbies and Rebels. If Schmidt was to pick say, Lolesio, Paisami and Wright / Kellaway, would this be too many play makers? I notice in a lot of those clips Tim Ryan playing across the field in support of Vunivalu. Is this a feature of Kiss’s structure?
2 Go to commentsSo sad, god rest him. Too young to be gone. RIP
2 Go to commentsRIP big man 🙏
2 Go to commentsThe GB coach. “Just because we don’t get together as much as other teams we don’t use that as an excuse for performances when we don’t hit the mark”. Why mention it at all then?
1 Go to commentsNo mention of the yellow card for Harlequins which really cost them.
3 Go to commentsThought you’d left us Nick. Good to have you back writing for us. So hunter ikitau works? I reckon wright kellaway as two of the back 3. Tim Ryan and Toole looking good for strike winger but I still want the power of korobeiti and figure our forwards still need him to help them out. Million dollar question is who plays 10? I’m thinking Noah for his kicking and combo with wright. Reckon the pair adds up to an attack and kellaway will help. Can you comment on Zac Lucas in Japan? How is he going?
2 Go to commentsMack Hansen, Ethan Roots, Taine Plumbtree, Louis Lynagh, Emmanuel Meafou? Which country do you want to pick your Barbarians from?
3 Go to commentsInstead of apologising, try to act like an adult, fcknut.
3 Go to commentsLooks like the Force twisted his leg…ahem arm
5 Go to commentsScotland should change their name to the Barbarians
3 Go to commentsThe game was already over leave the bloke alone ….from a Welsh fan 😀👍
3 Go to commentsShamefully the Toulouse players acted like footballers, falling down feigning injury at the slightest knock. About time refs penalised this play acting.
8 Go to commentsAnother non Scot for the anti Scot Townsend. Soon there will be no Scottish born and bred players in the National team.
3 Go to commentsGreat comeback to the playing field by Richie Mo’unga after the loss of his father. A great performance by Richie . I know him well and he is a great guy. On and off the field one of the greatest for the Crusaders. Scott Robertson would have loved him in his All Black’s side. A very missed player and person.
3 Go to commentsYeah nah he comes across as a funny bloke, but that stopped abruptly after the Nutcracker Prince debacle✋
3 Go to commentsAt this point I can’t watch him without thinking he’s a dirty slimebag. He should have been banned for the same amount of time that Quinn was out. It took Tupaea near on a fricking year to get fit enough to play again and his leg will never be the same. The other crap thing is that he was at ABs level and now he has to claw his way back there when he could have had several games under his belt.
5 Go to commentsThe Black Ferns 7’s have been without Captain Sarah Hirini now since Dec 23 in Dubai where she suffered a bad ACL injury - hopefully she is on the road to recovery for Madrid and Paris. Now also have Tyler King and Shiray kaka on the Injured List but the Team still found a way to win in Singapore and claim the overall Title.
1 Go to commentsUtter grub, hope he gets his leg broken. Shocking he is still playing after intentionally breaking quinn tupaeas knee
5 Go to commentsGreat to see NZ 7s teams finally coming into form and playing at the level that is expected of them.
2 Go to comments