Danny Care delivers a brutal insight to Eddie Jones' England

Former England scrum-half Danny Care has delivered a withering critique of Eddie Jones. The 37-year-old Harlequins No9 retired from international rugby earlier this year and an extract from his new book, Everything Happens for a Reason: My Life in Rugby, has been published by The Times in London.

The Ebury Spotlight publication, which launches on November 7, details how the current Japan boss, who is due to bring his team to London on November 24 to face Steve Borthwick’s England, ruled with an iron fist, leaving English players “desperate not to get dropped for all the wrong reasons, which made for a toxic environment”.

Saturday’s explosive book extract began with Jones’ treatment of prop Kieran Brookes and went on to detail other awkward moments during the early part of a tenure that began when he was appointed as Stuart Lancaster’s successor for the 2016 Six Nations.

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Care surmised: “When England were winning games, which they almost always did in the first two years of Eddie’s reign, it was easier to excuse his bad behaviour.

“But when performances started to slip, as they did in the 2018 Six Nations, when we managed only two wins and finished fifth, Eddie’s abrasiveness really began to jar. Analysts would be visibly shaking during presentations because they were so scared of getting something wrong…

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— Danny Care (@dannycare) July 30, 2024

“Eddie picked on the odd player but mostly it was just common or garden piss-taking, the kind of stuff that we were all used to. How he treated his staff – coaches, analysts, medical staff, communications officers – was a different thing completely.”

It was November 2018 when Care himself was axed from the squad via a curt voice message. “Danny, Eddie here. Didn’t think you were sharp enough at the weekend, I don’t need you this week. Cheers.”

Care felt he deserved better than this and confronted Jones at the team hotel when he went to collect his belongings. “Eddie,” I said, “I just feel that dropping me is a bit harsh. I don’t understand how I can go from starting against Japan to not being involved at all.

“We have done well over the last few weeks. We beat South Africa, we nearly beat New Zealand. The Japan game was always going to be tough because we changed a lot of players. And Japan played well. But we still managed to get back into it and win the game.”

“I thought I’d made my case quite eloquently, but Eddie just said, ‘That’s a s**t attitude, mate. That’s justified my decision’.”

Care was left in the international rugby wilderness until the summer tour of 2022, but that experience didn’t go well either as the scrum-half was subbed off just 35 minutes into a game with Australia.

“One of Eddie’s long-suffering analysts showed me a piece of paper listing all the players and how they needed to play. And in a gold box was written ‘30-minute substitution’ and three names: Mako Vunipola, Jamie George and Danny Care.

“It later transpired that Eddie had been speaking to some Aussie rules coaching guru, who had told him that if your team is slightly off it in the early stages of a game, you’ll get a more positive reaction from the players if you hook someone before half-time rather than during or just after the break.”

In extracts from his new book, scrum half Danny Care gives the most revealing insight yet into life under the former England coach, and explains in vivid detail how the players and support staff lived in constant fear

— Times Sport (@TimesSport) November 2, 2024