Eddie Jones' England future beyond 2021 remains up in the air

Eddie Jones’ future as England head coach beyond 2021 remains uncertain after Rugby Football Union chief executive Bill Sweeney placed the prospect of an extended contract in doubt.

Sweeney stated after England had finished World Cup runners-up that it would make sense to retain Jones until France 2023, adding that talks would be held “as a matter of urgency” upon their return from Japan.

A two-day tournament debrief was “overwhelmingly positive” in tone, but Sweeney is now in less haste to extend Jones’ current deal, which has two years left to run.

“Eddie and I have sat down and talked on a number of occasions,” Sweeney said. “We continue to discuss it but at the moment he is fully committed to seeing out the contract until 2021 and we will take it from there. We’re chatting about it.

“We’ll do whatever we think… reading the media over the last six weeks, the camps are pretty split. Some are saying don’t rush into anything, just stay with 2021. Other people are saying you should really do a four-year until France 2023.

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“We’ll do whatever we think is right for England rugby and it’s got to work for both sides. Eddie is committed to seeing out his contract so there’s no looming deadline when we will feel we need to make a pressing decision.”

The post-World Cup debrief took place on November 14 and 15, was chaired by Hugh Robertson, the former minister for sport, and included feedback from 27 of the 32 players used in Japan.

Revamp on the cards for the Heineken Champions Cup which has been using the same 20-team format since 2014/15https://t.co/xQMekO9H0e

— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) December 17, 2019

“We had one member of the previous review committee following 2015. We had a recently retired England player, a well-respected coach, a board member and myself,” Sweeney said.

“It included Eddie, all the coaching staff, all the operations staff. We had a working dinner. As you’d expect having reached the final, it was overwhelmingly positive. There was nothing that came out of it that was a fundamental miss or anything that needs to be changed.”

– Press Association

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