Smith: It would be morally wrong to take England role

George Smith says he would probably turn down Eddie Jones on moral grounds if his long-time mentor were to approach him with a plea to fix England’s breakdown struggles.

Smith, who has taken up a six-month contract with newly promoted Bristol Bears for the start of the forthcoming season, oversaw a breakdown clinic for England while he was at Wasps in January 2016. That year’s Six Nations, Jones’s first tournament in charge, brought England their first Grand Slam since 2003.

However, Smith is reluctant to return to Pennyhill Park ahead of an autumn schedule in which Jones’ side face South Africa, New Zealand, Japan and Australia.

The openside flanker, a veteran of 111 Australia caps, also joined up with Michael Cheika’s Wallabies last June. Again, his brief was to help out with technical aspects of the tackle area and he believes another stint with England would leave him compromised.

“I haven’t been in contact with Eddie about helping his team,” said the 38-year-old, who was signed to the ACT Brumbies by Jones in 2000. “I’m very much focused on Bristol Bears. That might sound like a line, but it’s not.

“He has not been in contact with me and it wouldn’t be right for me to do that because I have been in the English camp [before] and last year I was in the Wallabies camp. Morally, I probably wouldn’t do it – just because I have seen the inner sanctum of both camps. I would not put myself in that position.”

Smith revealed that Bristol had set themselves the goal of a top-six finish and qualification for the 2019-20 Champions Cup with their revamped squad, which includes New Zealand full-back Charles Piutau as a marquee signing.

Bristol made Piutau the world’s best-paid player upon acquiring him from Ulster, offering a wage of close to £1 million a season that does not count towards the £7million salary cap. Even so, Smith stressed that his arrival would not affect Bristol’s togetherness.

“These players would be playing in different competitions if they weren’t retained here,” he said. “We have a fantastic owner in Mr [Stephen] Lansdown, which allows us to recruit a player like [Piutau].

“From a players’ point of view, we are not worried about the money or how much people earn in the team. What we’d be worried about is egos and we have no egos in our group – that’s what you find when everyone is working for each other.”