Jones excited to extend England tenure

Personally, Leinster have been head and shoulders above everyone else, Fionn, but we’ve now got a match up for the ages. I think the winner of Leinster - Saracens will win the lot. Leinster must be favorites at home, but remember the match is 3 months away and it’s possible Saracens could be at full strength. Put it this way, if you asked Leinster who they’d least like to face in a QF, Saracens would be high on the list.

Whose your pick for the European Cup, Funbus? The boys on the Eggchasers podcast seem to think Clermont are favourites, but I personally feel that Leinster are looking the best.

They’re mostly ‘running confident’ on winning 22/23 matches. I was simply making the point that if you add up the players experiences over the last 6 months nothing would suggest a problem with self-belief.

I hope Gloucester wins. I've liked a lot of their play under Ackerman :)

The qualifiers for the 2017/18 Challenge Cup quarter-finals and their rankings at the conclusion of the pool stage have been finalised. 1 Pau (winner Pool 3 – 29 points) 2 Newcastle Falcons (winner Pool 1 – 28 points) 3 Connacht (winner Pool 5 – 26 points) 4 Edinburgh (winner Pool 4 – 25 points) 5 Cardiff Blues (winner Pool 2 – 21 points) 6 Gloucester (best pool runner-up – 21 points) 7 Brive (second best pool runner-up – 17 points) 8 Stade Français (third best pool runner-up – 17 points) The quarter-final matches to be played on 29/30/31 March / 1 April are as follows: QF 1: Pau v Stade Français QF 2: Edinburgh v Cardiff Blues QF 3: Connacht v Gloucester QF 4: Newcastle Falcons v Brive

Yeah, Cuw, surely burnout for England is a massive danger.

Well they lost their self belief three months after beating the ABs in 2012 by getting thrashed by Wales, so I’m not sure your representing them well when it comes to the ABs. In fact it’s more common that sides do lose after beating the ABs. Ireland in Chicago then lost to ABs Scotland Wales within three months. Oz in Brisbane, then get thrashed in the AI’s. 2011 and 2015 World Cup, both oz and SA had victories, yet both lost. A win over the ABs guarantees nothing after it, in fact it just about assures a loss soon after. Sure the Lions aren’t playing but it would be a false confidence if they’re running confident off the Lions series.

Don’t underrate Wales this year either.

I doubt that - certainly for the 6Ns. This year England has a good run-in to the toughest games, starting with Italy away and then Wales at home. As a viable competition, it all looks very tasty with few 'gimme' results.

Ireland don’t need injuries to be on a par with England, Fionn. There’s nothing between the sides and all know it. I think England and Ireland will be exchanging second place back and forth between now and the RWC. For the 6 Nations the question is which tips the balance, home advantage or injuries. We’re two months away from the game so we don’t fully know the injury situation, although we know England have a problem at 8 and LH. I disagree about ‘confidence.’ Many of the England players have just come off going toe to toe with the ABs in NZ, they’re not going to lose self-belief because injuries and circumstances have lost their clubs a few points in Europe.

You don't have a spare ticket do you, Funbus? Anyway, I think that a winning culture at club level breeds a winning culture at international level. The English team still has a lot of confidence, but those players from teams like Saracens, Leicester and Exeter who would have had a heap of confidence in the past couple of seasons must be doubting themselves somewhat. Meanwhile, the confidence of the Leinster and Munster players must be much higher. England also has a LOT of injuries, as you've discussed. Not saying that Ireland will necessarily win, but I think that they are at least join favourites with England this year, whereas last year I was certain England would win.

There are issues, but they can be overstated. First of all it's a very interesting development that Jones is having his contract extended by two years. It strongly suggests that England are planning to either appoint a successor from within the current coaching team, or an English Director of Rugby from the clubs. That means Baxter or Hepher from Exeter as the outstanding candidates (or possibly the Northern Irish coach at Saracens) or Borthwick or Gustard from within. No established international coach from outside is going to agree to sit at Eddie's feet for two years 'learning'. Regarding the English clubs, there are always issues in the post-Lions year. Effectively they don't get a pre-season, and the clubs don't have the luxury of giving them the full break they need, although they give them some. It's less of a problem for Ireland and Wales as their internationals are spread over a much smaller number of teams and, in Ireland's case, are centrally contracted anyway. Leinster, for example, have over 20 Irish internationals. Each 'star' is worth less individually to them than an English club with, say, 3 or 4 England internationals, so they can rest and rotate more easily. If you add in the massive injury lists which are partly, but not wholly related, then the relative lack of European success is explained. Even so, the big hitters (Saracens, Exeter, Wasps) have missed out by a whisker. It's important to remember it's hard to compete with a Leinster given the concentration of Irish stars. Only Saracens, really, have been a dominant English club side in Europe for the last decade or so. If they scrape through qualifying they'll still be one of the favourites when their injuries start to clear up. The 6 Nations should be a cracker this year. It looks, on paper, like a shoot out between Ireland and England, but don't right Wales off. I've got a feeling Scotland won't go as well as people expect. The Irish are going well and it's a toss-up between them and England. The final game is at Twickenham and that might tip the balance. If it was in Dublin, Ireland would be clear favourites. There's also a chance England's injury list might have eased a little by mid-March. They can't afford any more, particularly in certain positions. They've lost both their first and second choice '8's, and two of the three LHs in the squad. The backrow will need to be reshaped if Vunipola doesn't make it, and England need to be near 100% to beat Ireland. I've just heard I've got tickets for the match. England - Ireland at Twickenham, possibly to decide the 6 Nations on St Patrick's Day weekend - doesn't get much better than that.

the continuos play has taken its toll. the spate of injuries some say is becoz players are not getting enuf down time to recharge and recover. the issue is the premiership is much more powerful than the England union. after all they bring the tv money. the power of players' union can only be seen if the planned expansion to 14 clubs happens. few have expressed desire to get paid less and play less - in order to ensure longevity. after the initial head banging, Jones has managed to take a more peaceful path with the clubs. for example he let Sam Underhill off the training, tho he was ok and ready to play for Bath. one needs to be aware that he has a lot of resources available to become the best . a hell of a lot of money , facilities and a big pool of players. i think it will be interesting to see what happens if he cannot win in Japan. already he has done a trip and told the union where he wants to stay and also go there one month before event. after all that if he cant win the cup - then there will be grumpy face :D PLANET RUGBY HAD THIS " ‘Oh no not again…’ If coaching were an easy job, everybody would do it. There has to be an element of masochism buried within those who seek to coach at the highest level, who seek to satisfy the most impossible of tasks: pleasing everyone. Even winning teams can be winning in the wrong way, according to many fans. But surely not even the most ardent self-beater would like to be in Eddie Jones’ shoes at the moment. The ping on his phone heralding the arrival of a new email must be akin to a rogue mosquito buzz in the middle of a hot night. The injuries keep on piling up, outnumbered only this weekend by the updates speaking of red cards and suspensions. Yet it’s not just the discipline giving Jones a headache. Billy Vunipola is out, once again victim to the injury curse. He joins several others. England’s clubs’ form relative to their Six Nations counterparts continues to be lacking; the most striking example of this was the Scarlets’ trouncing of Bath on Friday night, but it’s also hard to escape the thought that a couple of years ago, Saracens would not have laboured to a draw in Swansea with their European Cup participation on the line. The principal difference between England and the English clubs’ is that the former is still winning. Otherwise the two are harder to distinguish from each other. The rugby is rarely inspiring – Exeter often excepted. But the dire state of the latter must surely be the clearest sign of present danger as the Six Nations, and New Zealand in November, loom ever larger on the horizon. There’s little doubt that the major problem is one of burn-out. Most Premiership-sited international players play significantly more club-level rugby than their Celtic counterparts. How this turns into something that can be managed is anybody’s guess, but you can only imagine the unrest within the club boardrooms should Jones try to force through the obvious and common sense solution: stop flogging the players. English rugby has problems again – few of them Jones’ fault, but he’s likely to need those steely reserves of stubbornness and innovation to help solve them. "

That seems the most likely outcome, Taylorman. That being said, the English club teams were great in the 2015-16 and the 2016-17 seasons. In this current 2017-18 season they have suffered a relatively catastrophic decline in their fortunes, to the point that I believe Ireland will probably will the 6 Nations and I wouldn't be surprised if Ireland were the number 2 side by the end of the year. South Africa, meanwhile are apparently about to get Erasmus and Peter de Villiers back in charge, so it is possibly that it will be the Wallabies alone who are awful out of the traditional big 3 SH teams.

Possibly but you gotta admit that Jones is in a great space. He must have learned from any shortcomings in the past by now and with the SH sides getting hacked up Jones can now get in and plan long term to build a genuine dynasty with England. I'd even be pushing to clubs which up and coming players to target to get them away from the test scene. He's a proven talent spotter and knows what he wants in a team. The only thing we can hope for is that he implodes, and even that will only stall the inevitable.

I wonder if it will now all fall apart like it did for the Wallabies under Deans when they got us to number 2 in the world and looking like we could challenge New Zealand for the RWC.