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Hansen's 'pretty surprising' verdict on Jones' England dismissal

(Photo by Odd Andersen/AFP via Getty Images)

Former All Blacks boss Steve Hansen has shared his thoughts on the decision by England to dismiss Eddie Jones as boss nine months out from the start of the 2023 Rugby World Cup in France. It was Jones’ England who dethroned Hansen’s All Blacks at the 2019 finals in Japan, the English winning a semi-final clash against New Zealand before losing in the final versus South Africa.

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With Hansen stepping down after that campaign and switching to coaching in the Japanese Top League, he hasn’t encountered Jones since then but their paths are now set to cross as Jones will coach the Barbarians in May at Twickenham against a World XV coached by Hansen.

As things stand, both Jones and Hansen will be watching the action unfold at next year’s Rugby World Cup in France from the stands rather than the coaching boxes. Hansen admitted his eyebrows were raised when he heard England had parted company with Jones so close to rugby’s showpiece tournament.

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He said: “It was pretty surprising that they would replace him now when all along Eddie has been saying, ‘Look, this is what we are building for’. He has been their most successful coach in history. Some might say that Clive (Woodward) is because he won a World Cup. However, the record speaks for itself, doesn’t it?

“I know Eddie had a big focus on the World Cup and that is probably what in the end cost him because he didn’t have such a good autumn and people were frustrated by that. But obviously, it’s their business and they have got to do what they think is right. Eddie has moved on, so the rest of us can too.”

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It’s now 38 months since Hansen last competed against Jones and he can’t wait to renew that rivalry when his World XV challenges Jones’ Barbarians. “You relish every chance to go against Eddie,” he said. “We have known each other for a long, long time and he’s a good rugby man. He cares about the game a lot, and I consider myself someone who cares about the game too.

“It’s an opportunity to be able to be part of something that could be quite special on the day. With Eddie, you have got to expect the unexpected because one of his great attributes is his ability to analyse the opposition and set traps for them.

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“He is a great planner. That is why he has been so successful with so many sides in different World Cups, having won one with South Africa. Obviously, he was building towards the one in 2023 and he is now not going to be there, which is unfortunate for him. But being the man that he is, he will move on quickly and he will still want England to do well.

“He will want to come to Twickenham (with the Barbarians) come the end of May and play a good brand of footy, and he will want to win too because he is a pretty competitive bloke.”

While he cannot wait to return to Twickenham, the 63-year-old Hansen isn’t looking to make a return to frontline coaching on the international stage for the time being. “I’m not missing it,” he added. “I love what I do at Toyota Verblitz. They are a great club and helping the young coaches through that system and trying to make the whole organisation even more professional than it is is a great challenge.

“You do miss the camaraderie of leading a team and the big occasions like playing at places like Twickenham, so you never say never, but it would have to be a pretty amazing opportunity. I owe my family a lot of time. They sacrificed a lot over a long period of time. So you never say never, but we will wait and see what happens.”

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Flankly 1 hour ago
'Absolute madness': Clive Woodward rips into Borthwick in wake of NZ loss

Borthwick is supposed to be the archetypical conservative coach, the guy that might not deliver a sparkling, high-risk attacking style, but whose teams execute the basics flawlessly. And that's OK, because it can be really hard to beat teams that are rock solid and consistent in the rugby equivalent of "blocking and tackling".


But this is why the performance against NZ is hard to defend. You can forgive a conservative, back-to-basics team for failing to score tons of tries, because teams like that make up for it with reliability in the simple things. They can defend well, apply territorial pressure, win the set piece battles, and take their scoring chances with metronomic goal kicking, maul tries and pick-and-go goal line attacks.


The reason why the English rugby administrators should be on high alert is not that the English team looked unable to score tries, but that they were repeatedly unable to close out a game by executing basic, coachable skills. Regardless of how they got to the point of being in control of their destiny, they did get to that point. All that was needed was to be world class at things that require more training than talent. But that training was apparently missing, and the finger has to point at the coach.


Borthwick has been in the job for nearly two years, a period that includes two 6N programs and an RWC campaign. So where are the solid foundations that he has been building?

4 Go to comments
N
Nickers 1 hour ago
Scott Robertson responds to criticism over All Blacks' handling errors

Very poor understanding of what's going on and 0 ability to read. When I say playing behind the gain line you take this to mean all off-loads and site times we are playing in front of the gain line???


Every time we play a lot of rugby behind the gain line (for clarity, meaning trying to build an attack and use width without front foot ball 5m+ behind the most recent breakdown) we go backwards and turn the ball over in some way. Every time a player is tackled behind the most recent breakdown you need more and more people to clear out because your forwards have to go back around the corner, whereas opposition players can keep moving forward. Eventually you run out of either players to clear out or players to pass to and the result in a big net loss of territory and often a turnover. You may have witnessed that 20+ times in the game against England. This is a particularly dumb idea inside your own 40m which is where, for some reason, we are most likely to employ it.


The very best ABs teams never built an identity around attacking from poor positions. The DC era team was known for being the team that kicked the most. To engineer field position and apply pressure, and create broken play to counter attack. This current team is not differentiating between when a defence has lost it's structure and there are opportunities, and when they are completely set and there is nothing on. The reason they are going for 30 minute + periods in every game without scoring a single point, even against Japan and a poor Australian team, is because they are playing most of their rugby on the back foot in the wrong half.

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