Critics lay into ‘arrogant’ Jones
England rugby coach Eddie Jones has been labelled arrogant and slammed for his psychological ploy that backfired so badly against France.
Jones talked talked up England’s potential for greatness and their physicality while questioning a young French team, only to be humiliated 24-17 in the Six Nations opener in Paris.
Fellow exiled Australian Matt Williams, who has also coached in the Six Nations, ripped into Jones in his analysis work for Virgin Media in Ireland.
‘‘I put a lot of blame for this on Eddie Jones,’’ Williams, who coached Scotland between stints with Irish clubs Leinster and Ulster, said.
‘‘Eddie Jones this week has been arrogant. He said they want to be the best team of all-time. Look at that performance there. Why would you say something stupid like that? Why put the pressure on your players?’’
Williams then referred to Jones’ prematch talk France said they used as ammunition.
‘‘I’ll read something here. It says, ‘France are young, inexperienced and don’t know how to fight. They can expect absolute brutality from England. We’re going out to make sure that they understand what test rugby is – it’s about brutality and physicality, it’s about dominating the set piece’,’’ Williams said on Virgin Media.
‘‘If you’re sitting there and you’re an England player, you’re going, ‘Coach, shut up. Don’t’. Why poke the bear?
The French came out and they just gave it to them. That’s just a bunch of kids, a lot of those guys.
‘‘England should have taken this team apart but they were arrogant.
‘‘That’s when England fail: they get arrogant and believe they are unbeatable. The French came out and gave it to them. I am absolutely delighted.’’
France’s man of the match, No 8 Gregory Alldritt, said his team was determined to prove Jones wrong.
‘‘Eddie was saying that we couldn’t manage the brutality of the England team,’’ Alldritt said after the match.
‘‘But when you are a winner, a competitor, you just want to show him that you can manage that.
‘‘Of course we read it. We were
clearly going to put some fighting spirit out there.’’
England’s only World Cup-winning coach Sir Clive Woodward also took aim at Jones in his latest column for the Daily Mail.
‘‘As for becoming the best rugby team ever and all that hyperbole, England should simply concentrate on becoming the best rugby team for the next 80 minutes. And then the next. That what true champion teams do – they never get ahead of themselves,’’ Woodward wrote.
‘‘The time for talking is now over, England must respond to this through their actions on the field of play, circle the wagons and stop all this media hype which is just nonsense and making them all look rather stupid.’’
England must now regroup as they get set to play Scotland this weekend with plenty of pressure on Jones.
‘‘That’s when England fail: they get arrogant and believe they are unbeatable. The French came out and gave it to them. I am absolutely delighted.’’
Australian Matt Williams, former Scotland coach