Flea in his year
JONES WARNED OVER ROTTEN RUN ENGLAND 13 SOUTH AFRICA 27
EDDIE JONES has been told publicly by his boss that results are not good enough after England’s worst year since 2008.
This latest defeat by South Africa at Twickenham capped a demoralising autumn and meant Jones failed to win for a seventh time since February.
England were booed off and the verdict of Rugby Football Union chief executive Bill Sweeney tallied with that of fed-up fans.
“Like them we are really disappointed with the results of the Autumn Nations Series,” said Sweeney.
“Despite strong individual performances and some great new talent coming into the team, the results are not where we expect them to be.”
In a week in which he was accused by MPs of being “asleep on the job”, Sweeney made a point of assuring fans that their feelings matter.
Equally significantly, there were no words of backing for coach Jones.
Contrast that with the spring review into England’s Six Nations flop which trumpeted the union’s continued “full support” for the Australian and the “solid progress” of his team.
There was no sign of progress on Saturday. Sir Clive Woodward branded it the “worst week in English rugby history... the game in this country is a total shambles”.
This is not an isolated view and 284 days out from the World Cup there is a clear sense patience is running out.
England have lost seven times in 2022, if you include the eight-try humbling in June by a 14-man Barbarians invitation side.
An RFU review panel will meet this week to discuss “how improvements can be made” ahead of the Six Nations which starts at home to Scotland on February 4.
But scepticism remains that any meaningful change will come of this as those on the panel serve under condition of anonymity.
“I don’t really care what other people think,” said Jones (inset) on Saturday night.
It was in response to a suggestion that England are now outsiders for the World Cup but that is the take, more generally, of a coach from the ‘my way or the highway’ school.
He would prefer that both the public his employers keep the faith but, after what the Boks did to England in the scrum and in the air, faith has left town.
Hooker Jamie George says delivering the Six Nations for the first time in three years is now non-negotiable. “You never know when your next game is going to be,” he said. “International rugby is ruthless like that. A couple of bad performances can be the end of it.
“We want the English rugby community to be excited about what we’re putting on the field. We haven’t done that over this autumn and we need to make sure we fix it.
“We do that through results. And the time is now.”