'Bizarre from the RFU, bizarre from Bill Sweeney...'

Former England international Andy Goode had taken a pop at Bill Sweeney, accusing the RFU CEO of being asleep at the wheel in allowing Eddie Jones to join a rival nation eight months out from the start of the 2023 Rugby World Cup. It was December 6 when the English decided to divorce the head coach that was contracted with them through to the end of the finals.

However, instead of ensuring in the small print of whatever payoff was agreed with Jones that he wouldn’t be able to coach against England in the short term, Monday’s appointment by the Wallabies of Jones as their new boss just 41 days later has generated the intriguing possibility of the Australian clashing with his old team in an October World Cup quarter-final.

Goode was aghast that the RFU didn’t think about putting Jones on gardening leave so that he wasn’t able to take up the offer to coach the Wallabies at the expense of Dave Rennie. Speaking on this week’s episode of The Rugby Pod, the show he co-hosts with Jim Hamilton, ex-England No10 Goode said: “I’m with you on the whole Dave Rennie thing, it’s incredibly sad for someone to lose their job in that way.

“Especially as they just had a training camp. So he has just put all the graft in, done the training camp with all the players and there were some good noises coming out of the training camp, Drew Mitchell was in with some of the Stan Sport boys doing a bit of behind-the-scenes footage.

“It seemed great. Next thing you know, whamo, Eddie Jones is in. So first and foremost, sorry for Dave Rennie. You hope that he got one hell of a payout because when your job is taken away from you like that and that quickly, you have got to get a payout right, bottom line.

“This brings me to the Eddie Jones thing. Have no doubt he will have a big short-term impact there. I actually had an Australian mate text me when the news broke and he said, ‘Oh f***, just as it looked like our backline might start entertaining people, here comes Eddie’. That’s an Australian who loves his rugby saying Eddie is going to take the fun out of watching Australian backs. They have got a great backline, don’t they?

“He will have an impact, don’t get me wrong. The big thing for me is Bill Sweeney, are you asleep again or what? I’d love to know the details. Eddie Jones was contracted until the end of the World Cup. Now in business, in sport, in absolutely anything, if you hold that contract over someone to a period of time you can put them on gardening leave.

“But what they have done is they have got rid of Eddie Jones and they have allowed him to go and get another job with another union that may knock England out of the World Cup… If you have paid Eddie Jones out, how have you not put him on gardening leave or how have you not restricted him from working for anyone else at the World Cup?

“I put it on social media and people were, ‘You all said he was a rubbish coach, he had got to go’. Well, the difference is I understand that but what you don’t want is to pay him out and then say, ‘Yeah, we will pay you out but also off you go and you can go and coach someone else’. So bizarre from the RFU, bizarre from Bill Sweeney to not have had that written into the contract.

“The only reason to let Eddie Jones go and do that is if they have saved a load of money by allowing him to go and work somewhere else. If Eddie Jones was smart he could have taken all his money or pretty much most of his money that he was due and then not have a restriction of trade and then go and do the Australian job.

“So it looks like there is a little more egg on the face of Bill Sweeney because he is asleep or maybe I am happy to be corrected Bill, if you want to come out and tell me the truth come on here and tell me.”