Woody tells RFU ‘wait on Eddie’

EXCLUSIVE

SIR CLIVE WOODWARD claims the RFU are right to play a waiting game with Eddie Jones and insists his old rival must earn a new contract extension with a successful Six Nations.

And Woodward also states “there are many good enough English coaches” equipped to replace the Aussie if he does opt against staying on beyond August 2021.

Twickenham bosses are preparing to hold more talks with Jones (below) in the coming weeks as he begins rebuilding the England team.

Chief Executive Bill Sweeney admitted recently that no formal agreement has been made as yet to retain the services of the man who led England to the World Cup Final in Japan and said an extension through to France 2023 “must work for both sides”. Woodward believes Jones needs to prove he is the right man to stay in charge by ensuring the loss to South Africa does not spill over into a poor showing in the forthcoming battle for Northern Hemisphere supremacy.

He said: “If I was the RFU, I’d see how things go in the Six Nations and the next 12 months. He has two years left on his contract. The last few years and the World Cup have taken a lot out of him.

“The disappointment of Japan will be huge, and he does have to start again.

“I don’t think it is a case of everything is OK we have a good young team that’s building. I don’t think we have. I think we have to start again.

“I would like to see

Jones take England into the next World Cup but that’s only as long as he starts well in the Six Nations and then beyond. I’d say to Eddie ‘just go another 12 months, two years and see how things are at the end of it’. If he does well then he should 100 per cent take the team to France.”