TRIPLE CLOWNS
Eddie’s boys go from Red Rose heroes to red nose flops in a year
EDDIE JONES admits his fate is out of his hands after England’s worst-ever Six Nations campaign.
Jones returned from Dublin facing calls for his head and conceding others would decide if he remains the right man to lead the World Cup finalists.
“That’s for other people to answer, not for me to answer,” he said after Ireland’s thumping win.
Jones acknowledged that a fifth place finish ahead of only Italy was “unacceptable” but insisted he was “100 per cent” confident he could turn things around.
England failed utterly to follow up their one decent performance of the championship, against France, reverting to the ill-disciplined rabble beaten by Scotland and Wales to complete a Triple Frown of defeats.
Former Red Rose fly-half Stuart Barnes believes Jones has “run out of steam” and that this defeat should signal the end.
“It is Jones’ team,” said Barnes. “It is his fault. Time to go.”
The Australian said: “Everyone is entitled to their opinion and I’m sure people are angry. “We expect to win and we expect to play better than we did. No one is more disappointed than the team and ourselves with what happened and the fans have got the right to be disappointed.
“I just think you go through these periods of time, I’ve seen it time and time again. History repeats itself where you have a good run, then you have a tough run. We’re going through it at the moment.” Jones added: “In international rugby, particularly at Six Nations level, you get to a certain stage and the success makes you a bit weak. You need to
32 18fight through that because it’s hard to be at the top of the tree all the time.”
England have won a Grand Slam and three Six Nations titles since Jones was appointed in 2016, as well as reaching a World Cup Final.
But Jones now has the country’s two worst Six Nations finishes on his record and there is a growing clamour for new personnel and fresh ideas.
England wing Jonny May emerged from the wreckage to apologise for the dreadful Dublin showing.
“Fans have a right to be disappointed,” he said. “It’s completely fair enough. It was tournamentdefining, this game. The opportunity to finish on a high and show we’d learnt lessons and improved. We didn’t do that.”
The world’s best resourced rugby nation finished above only Italy, coughing up more points and more penalties than ever before.
While France and Wales lit up the night with their rugby pyrotechnics, the World Cup finalists of little more than a year ago were plunged into the darkness of a record Six Nations low.
Sir Clive Woodward is in no doubt that the demise is a direct result of no meaningful debrief by RFU bosses of England’s World Cup Final “no show” 16 months ago.
He said: “I get the feeling Eddie and the team thought, ‘We’re a youngish team, we’re going to win it in four years’ time.’ That’s a massive mistake. International rugby is game by game.
“The moment you don’t see things going well, you have to make changes.”
Jones has too rarely done that, particularly with the out-of-sorts Saracens spine around which his team is built.
RFU chief Bill Sweeney will tomorrow be quizzed as to why Jones has apparently felt so little heat from his employers.