Jones may be losing touch with England

EVEN New Zealand suffer defeat now and again, but losing five matches in a row is a worrying sign for a team with ambitions of dethroning the champion All Blacks at next year’s World Cup in Japan.

Yet that is the position an England side coached by Eddie Jones are in after Saturday’s 42-39 defeat by South Africa in Johannesburg.

It was only in January that England’s governing Rugby Football Union announced a contract extension for Jones.

Back then, the former Australia and Japan coach had won 22 of his then 23 tests in charge of England since taking over after their first-round exit on home soil at the 2015 World Cup.

The dissenters, who pointed out there was no need for an extended deal at this stage, were told by RFU chief executive Steve Brown a robust succession planning process would avoid the disruptive pattern of changing the backroom team after a World Cup.

That may be true, but it is the immediate present that is England’s greatest concern.

A run of three successive Six Nations losses to Scotland, France and Grand Slam champions Ireland condemned England, who had been bidding for a third straight title, to a fifth-placed finish – their worst in the Championship since 1983.

The question is: who is to blame, the players or the coach? This weekend’s second test in Bloemfontein may be the most important match of Jones’s Red Rose reign. – AFP