England’s dismal Six Nations and the performance of coach Eddie Jones will be subject to a “brutally honest analysis”, says the Rugby Football Union.
Eddie Jones is set to discover by the middle of next month whether he will keep his position as England rugby coach following the team’s woeful Six Nations title defence.
The performance of Australian Jones and his team will be subject to a “brutally honest analysis”, the Rugby Football Union said on Tuesday.
The second fifth-place finish of the Jones era has placed Jones’ position under intense scrutiny, with the post-Championship debrief process finishing in mid-April.
“It needs to be a thorough, brutally honest analysis of what went wrong and why and what the issues are,” RFU chief executive Bill Sweeney said.
Losses to Scotland, Wales and Ireland condemned England to their worst Six Nations performance on the grounds of points difference and equalled the fifth-place finish of 2018.
“We certainly don’t want it to be an opportunity to wallow in excuses,” said Sweeney, who will head up a review panel consisting of established figures from within the game.
Sweeney must decide whether the second major slump of Jones’ reign is evidence of permanent stagnation or a temporary slide that he is equipped to reverse.
Among the criticisms made of Jones are his loyalty to out-of-form players, failure to solve an on-field disciplinary crisis, conservative tactics, and wild inconsistency in results and performances.
When asked if Jones or his assistants could be sacked as a result of recent performances, Sweeney said: “I don’t think I could honestly answer that one.
“I spoke to him on Sunday. He’s as disappointed as we are. He’s hugely competitive and we will do this debriefing session together as a panel and see what we learn from it.”
Counting in Jones’ favour is a win ratio of 77 per cent – the highest of any England head coach.
“I think you have to recognise and respect Eddie’s achievements since he’s been here – three Six Nations titles, a grand slam, a World Cup final. That’s a tremendous performance,” Sweeney said.
“His record against southern hemisphere teams is also terrific. But he wants to understand this as much as anybody.
“I think it’s really important at this stage that we apply a bit of good old English calm, if you like. We have to react. You can’t just do nothing. And we won’t do nothing.
“But at the same time it’s important we don’t overreact. Lets just get this in context, let the dust settle for days rather than weeks, but we will kick off that debrief process.
“We wont leave any stone unturned in terms of really understanding it.”
Meanwhile, Exeter Chiefs’ Rob Baxter, favourite to be England’s next coach, insists he is content at Europe’s top club amid all the uncertainty over the Australian’s future.
Exeter’s chairman Tony Rowe has stated than any approach by the Rugby Football Union for Baxter would be rejected and the director of rugby has now followed suit by confirming his allegiance to Sandy Park.
“I’m under contract, I’m happy here and that is my biggest consideration,” said Baxter, whose deal expires in 2023.
Lara
Guest
I really hope England keeps him.
Tom G
Roar Rookie
Must be a randwick thing
Guess
Roar Rookie
Wait I thought it was cheika's plan
stillmissit
Roar Guru
CUW could well be the case but we have ditched some coaches with decent records in the past. England is different they are, like Eddie, very conservative.
stillmissit
Roar Guru
Harry, He was a coach who many of the players came to despise because he was so political and stats driven. They used to call him 'wang eye'.
CUW
Roar Rookie
Eddie is not going anywhere - as someone famos had said " is there anyone qualified to question the coach in the management shed?" the suits have invested a lot of money on eddie - and a big pay packet too. another issue is if u take results he has won a lot tooo - including like 3 6nations!!! they will make him kneel for 15 minutes and promise to be a good boy till next world cup - like they did once before :silly:
CUW
Roar Rookie
even with those 2 trys england were 24 all with like 20 to go . they are very indisciplined then aginst france they got a nice little boy to give them a good ride - for the 2nd time in so many months . dont forget england won that autumn nations cup beating france becoz the ref made like 3 mistakes favorrable inside the last 5 minutes. eddie was smart going to town saying they trained with wayne barnes to overcome theier discipline issues. so the little boy ref who has a handful of tests let them get away with whatever - coz who is he to challenge what wayne barnes had said is ok? england had one simple issue - the sarries guys had no rugger and were out of form - but eddie kept on playing them. there ws a nice stat i saw somewhere - that sam symonds have double the trys billy v has scored in double the matches ..( the way i remember it) its all to do with eddies ego - maybe its an aussy thing. even cheika was like that - selecting players that had everyone wondering wtf!! at least cheika had an excuse lack of player depth
In brief
Guest
To be fair to the French ref in the Ireland game was diabolical
Tom G
Roar Rookie
Eddie’s plan b is to double down on plan a. It was the same at the Wallabies
Guess
Roar Rookie
Who's their new coach?
Harry Selassie
Roar Rookie
His loyalty to out of form players is I think his biggest drawback as a coach.
stillmissit
Roar Guru
Whoa! Is that the same Eddie Jones they were claiming as a god only in 2019? The criticism against him strikes a common note from his time in Australia. Among the criticisms made of Jones are his loyalty to out-of-form players, failure to solve an on-field disciplinary crisis, conservative tactics, and wild inconsistency in results and performances. He is conservative in the extreme his time with the Wallabies was a time when Gregan rarely, if ever, missed a game regardless of his poor form and 'Splinters' good form including a Tahs v Brumbies game where he ran all over Gregan. Not my favourite coach and apart from the anointed ones, not many players who were forced overseas due to his desire to drive McQueen's team into the ground.