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Where it all went wrong for Eddie Jones and England

By PA
Eddie Jones at England training. Photo by Warren Little/Getty Images

Eddie Jones has been sacked after seven turbulent years as England head coach that have produced highs and lows in equal measure.

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Here, the PA news agency answers the key questions surrounding his reign.

– Why was Jones appointed?

The stars aligned for the veteran ‘super-coach’ at the 2015 World Cup as Japan’s unprecedented success, headlined by a stunning upset of South Africa, coincided with England’s failure to reach the knockout phase for the first time.

Having appointed the inexperienced Stuart Lancaster in 2012, the Rugby Football Union then sought his opposite – a seasoned campaigner with a proven track record in the international game. Enter Eddie Jones.

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– Was he not a success to start with?

Unquestionably. The early days were dizzying – a Grand Slam in his first Six Nations in charge, a 3-0 series whitewash of Australia and a world record-equalling 18-Test winning run were glorious validation that the RFU made the right call.

All this was achieved with virtually the same players who had bombed so spectacularly at the home World Cup in 2015. Everything he touched turned to gold.

– So where did it go wrong?

The first real fault line emerged in 2018 in the form of a six-game losing run that brought with it a fifth-place finish in the Six Nations, but cracks had already started appearing.

The extraordinary churn of backroom staff had begun – evidence of his demanding and attritional management style – and he was equally happy to pick fights in public, calling out players, coaches, club owners and media.

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During the 2018 tour to South Africa he was warned about his conduct by Twickenham chiefs and, not for the last time, the mood music from behind the scenes was of a coach close to the sack.

– But England bounced back at the 2019 World Cup, right?

Yes, but in many ways the impact made in that tournament was emblematic of what England had become under Jones.

A kind route to the knockout phase – their group game against France was cancelled because of a typhoon – was followed by a poor Australia being swept aside and New Zealand being crushed in sensational fashion in the semi-finals. But barely a shot was fired in the final against South Africa on a day of crushing disappointment.

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Jones’ England rollercoaster was operational before and after Japan, but those seven days against the All Blacks and Springboks was its most extreme example.

– So he had earned the right to continue?

Dismantling New Zealand extended Jones’ reign, but arguably it should have ended there as originally intended.

England won the coronavirus-interrupted Six Nations and Autumn Nations Series in 2020, but performances were poor and the wheels came off the following year when they finished fifth in the Championship.

A cull of senior players followed, but they were eventually reinstated, and his coaching team was overhauled yet again. Some great young talent was blooded, but England had lost their way – muddled, bereft of identity and neutered by a toothless attack.

– What was the final straw?

For the third time under Jones, the Six Nations finished with three defeats.

The RFU backed him, seeing his fine record against southern hemisphere teams as crucial for mounting a challenge at the 2023 World Cup, but Jones’ position was no longer looking unassailable.

A 2-1 series victory over Australia in July initially justified the decision but a collapse before South Africa in the climax to an abject autumn saw the RFU’s patience run out, with its board approving the decision by a review panel to bring his reign to an end.

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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.

43 Go to comments
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