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'Belittled': Woodward fires back at Jones' 'insulting' comments
By Liam Heagney
Clive Woodward has yet again verbally blasted Eddie Jones, branding the current England head coach’s comments on English rugby’s private school system as divisive and disrespectful. Woodward has regularly locked horns with Jones in recent years and the reason for their latest collision is how Jones, in a recent wide-ranging interview with The i newspaper, claimed that the public schools system only builds compliant rugby players who can’t respond to adversity on the field.
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“They are good, tough players,” said Jones in the interview. “They work hard but they only know what they know. If you have only been in a system where you get to 15, you have a bit of rugby ability and then go to Harrow. Then for two years you do nothing but play rugby, everything is done for you. That is the reality. You have this closeted life.
“It’s the way the players are educated. I have been here seven years now and I have never seen kids in a park playing touch football [rugby]. Never. Zero. In the southern hemisphere, they are all doing that, developing their skills. Here you see them playing football but never touch football. That’s the problem. It’s all formal coaching, in a formal setting, in public schools. You are going to have to blow the whole thing up at some stage, change it because you are not getting enough skilful players through.”
Jones also disparagingly labelled the 2003 England World Cup win as a “situational success”, giving Woodward, the coach at the time, further fuel to eventually hit back in his latest Sportsmail column in the Daily Mail after he initially bit his tongue over the weekend to see if there would be an official RFU reaction to what the Australian critically had to say.
“I gave myself 24 hours before I looked to respond to Eddie Jones’ divisive and disrespectful comments on English rugby’s private school system. To be perfectly honest, in that time I expected the Rugby Football Union to come out and say something. But, as usual, we heard nothing from the head honchos at Twickenham,” bemoaned Woodward in the intro to a searing column that went on to tackle Jones’ negative opinion.
SIR CLIVE WOODWARD: Eddie Jones has no right to belittle the English game. It's INSULTING. https://t.co/dlJoP4l46Q
— Mail Sport (@MailSport) August 9, 2022
“Jones’ comments in comparison seem so misplaced. They are insulting to English rugby. At a time when the game must work together to solve incredibly important issues, to hear such a divisive stance from the England coach is astonishing. If Jones’ comments were solely concerned with growing the game and finding ways to take rugby to new schools and unearth new talent, you would support him. But that is not what he is saying… To blame England’s failure to win big games on his players’ backgrounds is a total cop-out.
“Part of coaching is creating decision-makers and leaders yourself. That is just an important part of the job as the work you do on the field. Jones cannot blame the school system for English rugby’s struggles. There are brilliant people working in both private and state schools.
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“Jones should be thanking the coaches at schools level for bringing talent like Henry Arundell through instead of criticising them. How do the teachers who have helped develop players like Maro Itoje and Arundell at Harrow School feel after Jones’ comments? They have been belittled.
“Twelve of the 23 players in the England squad for their last Test against Australia in July went to fee-paying schools. The other 11 went to state schools. The division is roughly equal. Rugby is a game for everyone and the current England side represents the country well, not only in terms of educational background but in social and racial diversity too.”
As regards the downplaying by Jones – the then Australia coach – on England winning the 2003 World Cup, Woodward retorted: “Describing 2003 as a blip does not do justice to what was a golden period of English rugby. Moreover, it is an insult to the players of that era who paved the way for future generations… The only reason 2003 can be described as a ‘situational success’ is that it is the only time the people involved got the ‘situation’ right.”
Ignorance, irascibility, hubris, and modest intelligence are not a good mix. Eddie Jones’s ill-informed generalizations about the relative merits of public and private schools anywhere exemplify why. Moreover, as a ‘gritty’ exemplar (presumably) of the public school system in Australia, Eddie implicitly sets himself above all those ‘sissy’ private school types. It is a glass house of his own making.
I am not particularly fond of Eddie Jones but he has on occassion said things that in the end were proven true e.g. the debacle on the tennis star Raducanu (reminder "Jones, who was speaking after England defeated Tonga in the Autumn Nations Series on Saturday, used Raducanu as a cautionary example when discussing the need for Marcus Smith, the talented young England rugby player, to remain focused. “The big thing for good young players is distractions … there’s a reason why the young girl who won the US Open hasn’t done so well afterwards,” said Jones.") which he was lambasted for. Well, what's happened to Emma since? And here he may just be correct "again", calling a spade a spade. Most else he talks rubbish.
I cannot stand the verbal diarrhea that comes from Woodward. He is the biggest hypocritical loud mouthed fool in rugby, he belongs in soccer. Very quick to tell everyone and every team how terrible they are and point to whatever problem he can find that suits his narrative but cant take it as good as he gives, has to wait for 'daddy' (RFU) to do something about it and has a fanny wobble if they dont.
IMO Eddie is right, private school kids, and this is what I have experienced personally, dont have the fight and determination that kids from 'the block' have. There is a dogged approach that cant be taught or coached, use the boks as an example in the the 2019 WC final.
Dont know at all but he seems like a private school brat, and a general tw@t
Given where NZ and Australia currently sit in the pecking order, maybe formal coaching works better than playing touch rugby in a car park for developing international rugby players in this era?
As for kids not playing Touch Tag rugby etc suggest he speaks to his RFU paymasters as to why that is the case.
Certainly was happening in the mid to late 80s and 90s and we know why that was...and we certainly know why it is not happening now.
Eddie Jones is an utter disgrace. Firstly the Independent sector along with numerous hard working state school teachers and club coaches have kept Rugby Union going for years enabling whoever the National coach is to have a great number of players to select from.
Secondly many players that attend Independent schools do so just for the sixth form on scholarships. Too many great players have come through this system not to mention a great many that have also gone on to represent the Lions.
Most galling of all however is the fact that many players now come through the premiership Academy System and a great many of those have never ever been anywhere near an independent school.
In addition the Academy staff are paid for by the RFU so if he had deemed it necessary to step in and advise as to what was / was not being delivered in said academies I am sure he could have done.
Guess he could not be bothered.
6.5% of the UK population go to fee paying Schools. not 52% as Woodwind suggests.. but to be fair, I don't expect PE teachers do maths.
Woodward is that much of a prixk he makes Eddie Jones seem balanced and reasonable.