Jones key to turnaround for the hosts
Watching England squirm is a global pastime. They are puffed up to such a ridiculous extent by their supporters and media who rarely see much wrong until there is a calamity when they all turn feral.
Now England are out of the World Cup, the tournament is expected to shift to the inside sports pages.
The World Cup will surge on. Wales, Ireland and Scotland are still in the event, Japan has turned convention on its head, Georgia has muscled up and if they could find a backline, they’d give some of the Six Nations sides a shake.
England? Gone, along with their stodgy playbooks and gym junkies who tried to cavort around the test arena but were shown up by rivals with tiers to their play and judgment in their bones.
We’ll pick at that England carcass for a few days because it’s a lesson for all. Up north, the critiques of coach Stuart Lancaster, his regime and ideas will be mounting. It’s the way many of the so-called England rugby analysts operate.
Most love jumping on the chariot and pumping up the team tyres until such a calamity as their 33-13 loss to the Wallabies and World Cup demise.
The more independent observers have questioned Lancaster and his approach at regular times and are now reworking those concerns as the cheerleaders have latched on to those ideas with even more venom.
Lancaster’s record of 27 wins in 45 tests, the lack of success against the Springboks, one win against New Zealand and two against the Wallabies allied to this World Cup failure, should send the coach to the gallows.
While England are at it, they should examine the influence of chief executive Rob Andrew who has endorsed the last two appointments, Martin Johnson and Lancaster.
Who would make a coaching difference?
Names are flooding the helpdesk. Most are from offshore or have a Kiwi connection. Next England will want to align the seasons so countries can dovetail their programmes and learn to play in similar conditions.
Outside Warren Gatland, Joe Schmidt and Vern Cotter there will be pleas for Robbie Deans, Wayne Smith, Ewen McKenzie, perhaps Ian Foster, to take the role.
Deans would have to get out of his Japanese deal to push on from his All Blacks and Wallaby experiences. Smith once thought about taking a role as England assistant but turned down that 2012 offer. There’s not much intelligence on future rugby plans of the other contenders.
The man England should target is Eddie Jones.
He coached the Wallabies to the 2003 RWC final, assisted the Springboks to their 2007 triumph and is now leading Japan to some stunning results at this tournament.
Jones is a hands-on coach, a teacher by training who loves the technical side of rugby and has the vision to create styles to fit individual teams and loves to engage in spiky debates with anyone in the game.
England’s raw material would be rugby treasure for Jones to sift, rework and really be a threat in 2019. He’s due to take up another Super Rugby challenge as coach of the Stormers although he’s sure to have an exit route if England called with a decent offer. Andrew Mehrtens is working for Radio 5 live but was caught in a traffic jam at Bristol before the All Blacks test against Georgia in Cardiff. Inquiries for help in the media room at Cardiff went unanswered until journo-for-hire Willy Nicholls stepped up to the microphone for 30 minutes of ‘expert’ comment. England advanced further when they were jumping into harbours and drinking like fish. Tweet from former All Black forward Craig Newby. Is Danny Cipriani back on the turps? He just needs to add two words from his view that “not one Australian would (want to) get into that England team right now.”