Eddie’s insults only mask his own World Cup failure
“Jones seems to have an unfavourable vision of England rugby and English society” on the England players’ confidence and linking it to ‘class’ and
Eddie Jones has released his new autobiography and in it he condemns how the Premiership limits the players’ ability to play at international level in a number of ways. He is also quite insulting and judgemental with his views of English society.
He says the Premiership lacks imagination and skill and produces ‘stodgy’ games week after week that the clubs and supporters like, and that when he was at Saracens in 2007/8, the Premiership ‘slog’ took the joy out of the game for him.
In the book he claims the ‘culture of modern sport’ is that everything is so organised that players effectively don’t have to think for themselves, they lack confidence and don’t have to show initiative, which impacts on leadership as the two are entwined.
As a result, he says the players are becoming robotic, followers not leaders. And I hate to admit that to a certain extent he is right.
When you have a professional game where all are dependant on the money generated by the success of the club and there is a risk of losing your place in the top league where the money is, some clubs will not take risks.
Those clubs employ coaches who will also not take risks and that involves picking players who they know will not be maverick and will stick to the game plan they are given, even if it’s as dull as Eddie suggests.
As soon as I wrote this I could hear the siren calls from those who want a ring-fenced Premiership. I don’t but I understand the logic of clubs taking a defensive stance in trying to preserve their Premiership status.
The thing is, it is the clubs and coaches that must be prepared to give players freedom to play instinctively and show initiative that tends to win the top competitions.
Unfortunately, those clubs are few and far between, which is why we always end up with the same teams battling at the top and bottom of the Premiership and so it will remain until a fairer league structure can be formed that doesn’t concentrate all available money into just the top league.
Jones also commented that his assistant coaches were reticent and always asked him what he wanted them to do, rather than take control or express an opinion.
This is not a surprise, as he is the head coach and is supposed to set the direction for all below him (coaches, assistant coaches and players) and until he has outlined a basic idea of what he is trying to achieve it would be wrong for anyone to usurp him.
The one thing that I feel Jones should have avoided were his comments the north/south divide.
Jones used a privileged part of Surrey with palatial homes as the definition of the whole of Southern England and less open to change because, he said, they are pretty comfortable, while espousing Wigan, where Owen Farrell was born, as the picture of the working class north as being friendlier and more open to change.
As the son of probably the highest earning Rugby League star of his day, it is highly unlikely that Farrell was growing up in a two up, two down council house in the middle of the more run-down parts of Wigan.
If Jones had gone to the equivalent privileged areas around Wigan, he would have found homes just as palatial, if not more so, than those he saw in Surrey, and people just as relucparticularly tant for change.
However, despite Jones saying he liked a mix of cultures, the game of rugby at the elite level still remains largely the preserve of the public school-educated few, as even Jones’ World Cup final team numbered just four – Manu Tuilagi, Courtney Lawes, Kyle Sinckler and Sam Underhill – who didn’t go to public school.
Jones seems to have an unfavourable vision of England rugby and English society, with the privilege few at the top, whether in rugby or wealth, unwilling to change and happy with the status quo.
I don’t know about the wealthy, but in rugby those that pick the players set the rules as to the way those players play, especially now the clubs are also their employers.
England’s failure was Eddie Jones’ failure. Demeaning the country and the clubs for his failings is to let down the millions that supported the team, and him.