Jones backed to lead England at World Cup by RFU chief Sweeney

Eddie Jones has been backed to lead England at next year’s World Cup after the Rugby Football Union insisted ‘Eddie is the guy to take us there’.

The Australian has a contract until the end of the 2023 tournament in France and eased mounting pressure on his position by mastermindingthismonth’s2-1tourvictory over his native country.

RFU chief executive Bill Sweeney said Jones’ impressive record against major southern hemisphere nations – 20 wins from 25 – was central to the national governing body keeping faith. He also conceded that evolving England require improvement in anumberofareasinordertobe competitive during Test rugby’s showpiece competition.

“We’d expect him to go throughto’23,”Sweeneysaidof Jones.“Itistoughatthehighest level of sport. There is so much scrutinyandreasonablescrutiny.Ithinkitisimportantsometimes not to over-react but it is also equally important not to under-react.

“Wedon’tjusthaveareview aftereverymajortournament, wehaveanongoingreviewprocess. We will clearly be doing that with Eddie and the coaches when they come back, they are due back at the end of the month.

“We have been looking for signs of ‘are we on track?’, ‘do we still believe in the direction we’regoingin?’and‘dowehave theconfidence(inJones)?’and we’ve said we do.

“We are not blind to some of the areas that need to be addressed.We’vegottoimprovea lottobecompetitive.Thechallenge for us is to improve at the ratewethinkisgoodenoughto be fully competitive in 2023. And we do believe Eddie is the guy to take us there.”

JonesguidedEnglandtothe final of the 2019 World Cup in Japan – where they were beaten by South Africa – but his position has since come under increased scrutiny on the back of two dismal Six Nations campaigns. Victory in Australia, which was not entirely convincing but secured in the absence of a host of key men, has at least placated some of the 62-year-old’s detractors.

“One of the reasons we feel very confident around decisions and around conversations regarding Eddie is his win ratio, particularly in the southern hemisphere,” continued Sweeney.

“Ithinkthat’snow25games againsttieronesouthernhemisphere teams and 20 of those won, so it’s an 80 per cent win ratio. If you add in the other southern hemisphere teams, it goes up to about 82 per cent win ratio.”