Pursuit of perfection drives Jones to complete unfinished business as England supremo
HEAD COACH Eddie Jones will continue pursuing the “perfect game” of rugby and trying to make England the “greatest” side in the sport’s history as he starts the latest chapter of his colourful story with the Red Rose.
The Australian’s contract was due to expire next year but he has now signed up until the end of the 2023 World Cup in France where he hopes to see his side finish what they started last year.
Losing the World Cup final against South Africa left Jones with unfinished business and he said: “We want to become one of those teams where people remember how you play for a period of time.
“That’s the ache I have as a coach. The test of greatness is to do it consistently. With that comes results.
“If we’re the greatest team then a World Cup medal is probably sitting in front of us.
“Our goal hasn’t changed at all from what I stated at the start of this cycle and it will continue to be the same.
“I want a team that plays the perfect game of rugby and is remembered as being the greatest team the game’s ever seen. I think we’ve got players within England to do that. I think the players have the hunger to.”
Having initially joined at the end of 2015, replacing Stuart
Lancaster, Jones will become the longest-serving coach the national side has ever seen, eclipsing Sir Clive Woodward, if he reaches 2023.
Jones, 60, also has a win ratio of 78 per cent – the highest in the history of England coaches – having won 42 of his 54 Tests in charge, drawing one and losing just 11.
Under him, England have won two Six Nations titles including a Grand Slam in 2016, a 3-0 away Test series win against Australia in the same year, an unbeaten run of 18 matches equalling New Zealand’s record and – having slumped in 2018 – rallied to become finalists at last year’s Rugby World Cup in Japan.
En route they produced brilliant displays to beat Australia and holders New Zealand. They had a tricky start to the Six Nations this year, losing their opener against France, but went on to beat Scotland, Ireland and Wales to lead the championship before it was cancelled due to the coronavirus.
In light of the pandemic, and with the sport indefinitely shutdown, RFU CEO Bill Sweeney was “pleased to be sharing some good news” of Jones extending his stay.
However, Sweeney conceded the coronavirus crisis was set to dramatically re-shape international rugby union.
“What’s come out of this is an agreement between all the unions – north and south (hemisphere) and World Rugby – to really start with a blank sheet of paper,” he said.
“When you have a crisis of this nature and scale it does highlight where you have fault lines and it does highlight where you can have some weaknesses. Some of those are being exposed now.
“A lot of conversations now are around ‘how do we come out of this and emerge stronger?’.
“We don’t want to just come back in and carry on with the same model; that just repeats the errors and difficulties of the past so there’s a lot of really positive, productive conversations about how do we come out of this with rugby union in a better place.
“That’s both domestically and also internationally.”