England must stick with Eddie no matter what happens next
Head coach’s pursuit of excellence inspires players and should earn him contract until 2023
Trade the name Eddie Jones for Michael Cheika and where would we be? Jones on the way out of the England job the way that his old Randwick mucker has exited Rugby Australia, or would he still be sailing full-steam ahead on Battleship Twickenham? One day a rooster, the next a feather duster is the gnawing whisper in every coach’s head.
The end was almost certainly nigh for Cheika before the final whistle sounded at the Oita Stadium on Saturday night. He jumped before he was pushed, unloved at the end, a grumpy, disconsolate signing-off to a fiery, confrontational five-year reign. Victory over England would have applied a gloss to what has been a turbulent time in charge. The more intriguing question is what would have unfolded had the score, 40-16, been reversed or even shown a marginal advantage to Australia. Jones has no doubts. “You would have been coming hard at me,” he said to journalists, all too aware of the brutal realities of elite sport having been dumped by Australia in 2005. And he was correct. We would have been.
Would it have been right, though, to terminate Jones’s contract if England’s multimillion pound mission had come to an abrupt, ignominious end on Saturday? No, it would not.
But that does not mean serious questions ought not to have been asked of him. The reasoning is simple.
There is no point investing all that cash, all that sweat and toil, all that hope and faith, if the outcome itself can just be shrugged off as one of those things. It cannot. It may only be sport but it matters. It is an emotional business, feelings run high, often trumping reason. There is nothing wrong with that. Far better that swirl of feelings, that care and attachment, than some chillhearted, company boardroom executive decision.
A World Cup triumph is celebrated. Equally a World Cup failure should be subject to a forensic post-mortem.
Those were the stakes at Oita Stadium. Jones knew that. The England head coach helped bring about that notable victory. He was within his rights, also, to bridle when asked if he had any sympathy for the land of his birth.
Jones has long since bristled at this lame categorisation of nationality. He has been appointed to do a job, not to pretend to swear allegiance to the crown. Jones would have been rightly delighted at the win. That it was over Australia is neither here nor there.
Of course there would have been a legitimate clamour for Jones to be sacked. By his own terms, he would have failed to have got England on to the podium in Yokohama on Nov 2. Yet it would have been short-sighted folly to send him on his way. Jones may have churned through a significant number of backroom staff who have buckled under his incessant demands. As long as there are no HR issues to tend to, Jones is entitled to drive the quest for excellence as hard as he has.
That is why he is the man to take England forward towards the 2023 World Cup, no matter what happens over the next 12 days.
Jones’s standards are what you want in any set-up, upholding an ethos that brooks no compromise. The prevailing mantra is that every day is a day to get better, one that was laid down on arriving in office almost four years ago.
He may not be an easy man to work with but the players have thrived under his tutelage. TV footage showed an impassioned Owen Farrell in the post-match huddle on the pitch exhorting his players to look for more against the All Blacks. Jones is an Australian but he might have been a New Zealander so alike are their rugby sensibilities.
Defeat by the Wallabies would have led to a heated, protracted fallout. But Jones has created something of note with England, inculcated high performance values in players that will endure.
Of course there may be tempting offers for Jones, no matter the terms of his contract, which stretch to another two years. That is why the Rugby Football Union must ring-fence its asset. Others will be circling. Jones knows his value. So, too, does the RFU. It knew that even before the first whistle blew at the Oita Stadium. Jones is their man.
And with good reason.