Coach: We do not need a director of rugby
Eddie Jones has dismissed out of hand the recommendation in a secret report that he and future England head coaches should be answerable to a director of rugby at the Rugby Football Union.
Jones described the recommendation, written by Jeff Blackett, the former Professional Game Board chairman and RFU board member, in a wide-ranging report on the future of English rugby, as “the most faulty argument I’ve ever heard in my life”.
The Daily Telegraph revealed details of the confidential report, which was only shared with a handful of key figures in the professional game, on Wednesday.
Blackett, the former chief disciplinary officer and chairman of governance at the RFU, was also a member of the governing body’s board when he compiled the report in June before standing down to become junior vicepresident of the union.
As well as recommending that the RFU chief executive and board delegate management of Jones to the director of professional rugby (currently Nigel Melville) from the start of this season, Blackett also questioned whether changes to the management structure around the head coach and the way his performance is reviewed were “appropriate for the future”.
The report, which was sent to both the boards of the RFU and Premiership Rugby for consideration over the summer, was written in the aftermath of the row between Jones and Bruce Craig, the Bath owner, over the number of injuries players had picked up when in England camp, the fifth-place finish in the Six Nations and the 2-1 tour defeat by South Africa.
However, Jones, who has reported directly to the RFU chief executive since his appointment in Dec 2015 – first Ian Ritchie and then Steve Brown – insisted that the England head coach should be in overall control and responsible for the affairs of the national side.
Asked if it would be beneficial for him to answer to a line manager who has comprehensive rugby experience instead of a chief executive, Jones said: “So does he [Brown] know everything about marketing, about media, about catering, about logistics?
“It’s the most faulty argument I’ve ever heard in my life.
“This comes around every three or four years. How many times have they had this argument at the RFU?
“What’s a director of rugby? If you can tell me what a director of rugby is, I’ll tell you whether I’ve worked with one or not.”
The RFU has said that Jones will continue to report to Brown and that he has the full backing of the board. However, it is understood that the RFU will consider a change to the structure of the rugby department when it appoints a successor to Jones.
The England coach, however, does not appear to believe that this would be the right way forward.
“Do you really think I care? It’s not my responsibility – everyone works out their own way,” he said. “If you pay someone to be the head coach, then you want them to be the head coach.
“Someone said the other day they went to a club and asked a bloke, ‘What’s your job?’ He said, ‘I’m the director of performance.’ So he suggested, ‘So you’re the head coach?’ The bloke said, ‘No, I’m head of performance.’
“So he asked him ‘who is responsible for performance?’ and he replied, ‘The head coach’.
“So how do you have a director of performance? Whether you win or you lose, who do you come and see? The head coach. You don’t go and see the director of performance. So you tell me the sense of having a director of rugby, or director of performance, or whatever you want. I’m happy to have a discussion about it.”
Meanwhile, Jones intends to give Billy Vunipola every chance of being fighting fit for the World Cup despite suffering his third broken arm of the year that has ruled him out of the autumn internationals.
“I only have him for nine weeks between now and July [when England’s World Cup squad assemble],” Jones said. “In that time, we will look after him like he is the king’s baby. The rest of the time it is Sarries’ responsibility, and they look after their players well. We trust them to do a great job.”