JUST NOT GOOD ENOUGH, EDDIE

RFU refuse to rule out Jones sack after Six Nations review

EDDIE JonEs received no assurances about his future as England head coach yesterday as the RFU promised an inquest into the dire six nations campaign.

With the dust still settling on a championship which saw England lose three games and finish fifth, the powers that be at Twickenham pledged to conduct a thorough audit of the embattled Jones regime.

Chief executive Bill sweeney acknowledged the many feats on his watch but also refused to rule out the unlikely prospect of an England upheaval.

‘We are all incredibly dibly dis disappointed,’ he said. ‘England don’t go into nto a six nations s expecting to come fifth. The purpose of a debrief is to look at what we learned from the six nations, leave no stone unturned and address the issues that need to be fixed. If we have to o make changes, we’ll e’ll make changes.’

However, the RFU U have set their stall out to take stock carefully, with a panel conducting a post-mortem which will go on into next month.

There is a clear desire to avoid knee- jerk reactions after England’s ill-fated title defence which unravelled as they lost to scotland, Wales and Ireland in the same season for the first time in 45 years. ‘ It’s important to stress that Eddie’s not in denial,’ said sweeney.

‘He’s not quoting his win ratios, or previous tournaments or his record up to now. He’s totally focused on now and going forwards. He is hugely disappointed and he knows it’s going to be a thorough and brutally honest debrief. ‘We need to get to the facts of it. We need to lift the hood up, have a look in there and say “Are we headed in the right direction?” ‘But let’s just do it with a bit of common sense, a bit of caution and a bit of calm, in a very considered way. ‘ You have to recognise and respect Eddie’s achievement since he’s been here — three six na nations titles, a Gran Grand slam, a World Cup final. ‘H ‘His performance a against southern H Hemisphere teams is terrific, but we want him to talk to us about what happened in the six s nations and ask, a “Do you think we are on track to where whe we want to get in 2023?”.’ sweeney sween was at pains to emphasi emphasise how critical it is for the RFU to establish the full facts and make the best decision about the way forward, as the national team has such an influence on the wider health of the sport in this country. ‘It is really important we get it right,’ he said. The union are aware that a generation of outstanding English talent must be suitably harnessed and that any talk of England being in transition does not chime with the age profile of the current squad. There has been outside criticism that 61-year-old Jones (above) is too powerful and is allowed to act as he pleases without being challenged by his employers.

Responding to that suggestion, sweeney said: ‘I would say that is wrong. That is absolutely not the case. I know that is a perception, but he doesn’t have power and influence within Twickenham. He is the head coach, he selects the squad, picks the team and is judged on performances, like most coaches.

‘He is very transparent with us in terms of his thinking, plans, preparation. He is completely open.

‘There is accountability, but you also have to allow your head coach to get on and do what he has to do. I’m not going to question his tactics round the line-out, I’m not going to talk to him about how Matt Proudfoot is doing around the set-piece.

‘But to think he is totally on an island by himself, with no accountability, no interaction — it’s honestly just not the case.’

Another man who will be involved in the review is Conor o’shea. The RFU’s director of performance rugby lashed out at any argument that Jones should not be allowed to run the England team as he sees fit, adding: ‘There is not a head coach in the world who is not the boss. You can support, you can challenge, but they are the boss. They select. If you impose, you set yourself up to emasculate your head coach.

‘It is absolute lunacy to suggest the head coach is anything other than the boss of that team. For anyone to intimate someone has too much power or isn’t accountable — it’s rubbish. It’s living in Walter Mitty land.’

sweeney also admitted that he has spoken to Jones about the recent public outburst when he claimed that the media fill the players’ heads with ‘rat poison’.

‘I didn’t like that,’ he said. ‘I don’t think anyone welcomes that. That doesn’t really help the cause. We’ve had a chat about it.’