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Clive Woodward: 'He is a shadow of the Jones I competed with'
By PA
Sir Clive Woodward believes Eddie Jones will be remembered for “misguided rhetoric and unfulfilled promises” during his time as England head coach.
Woodward, who led England to World Cup glory in 2003, and Jones were rival coaches when his team beat Australia to lift the trophy 19 years ago.
Jones’ seven-year reign with England ended on Tuesday following a Rugby Football Union review of an Autumn Nations Series campaign that saw defeats against Argentina and South Africa.
“I am always sorry to see people lose their job, but Eddie Jones has been badly distracted since the last World Cup and he’s paid the price,” Woodward wrote in his Daily Mail column.
“He is a much better coach than he has shown over the past three years. He is a shadow of the Jones I competed with, and whose first years with England were so successful and rightfully applauded.
“He became completely focused on the 2023 World Cup, and that was a costly error.
“International rugby is very simple: focus everything on the next game with absolutely zero distractions. The fans who pump the money into the sport didn’t buy his hype.
“What will Jones’ legacy be? The semi-final victory over New Zealand at the 2019 World Cup was his best performance, but unfortunately, he will be remembered for the misguided rhetoric and unfulfilled promises.
“I don’t think history will remember this period of English rugby too kindly.”
Jones’ successor has yet to be announced, although Leicester boss Steve Borthwick – a former England forwards coach who masterminded Tigers’ Gallagher Premiership title triumph last term – is the clear favourite.
Woodward added: “If it is Steve Borthwick who comes in then we’ve all got to get behind him and I wish him all the best.
“I hope they don’t just pick him because he’s an Englishman. I hope they pick him because they think he’s the best coach in the world.
“He must be allowed to bring in his own coaching team, and if I was him I would definitely bring Kevin Sinfield over from Leicester.”
But former Australia star Matt Giteau, who played in the 2003 World Cup final, believes it is a “big mistake” to remove Jones as England boss.
“It would have to be the silliest thing they could do to the English rugby team,” Giteau said, on Twitter.
“He plans & plans & plans years in advance for this competition (World Cup). It’s the one competition that he has got consistently right time and time again. Big mistake imo.”
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The boy needs to bulk up if wants to play 10 or 11 to handle those hits, otherwise he could always make a brilliant reserve for the wings if he stays away from the stretcher.
Go to commentsIn another recent article I tried to argue for a few key concept changes for EPCR which I think could light the game up in the North.
First, I can't remember who pointed out the obvious elephant in the room (a SA'n poster?), it's a terrible time to play rugby in the NH, and especially your pinnacle tournament. It's been terrible watching with seemingly all the games I wanted to watch being in the dark, hardly able to see what was going on. The Aviva was the only stadium I saw that had lights that could handle the miserable rain. If the global appeal is there, they could do a lot better having day games.
They other primary idea I thuoght would benefit EPCR most, was more content. The Prem could do with it and the Top14 could do with something more important than their own league, so they aren't under so much pressure to sell games. The quality over quantity approach.
Trim it down to two 16 team EPCR competitions, and introduce a third for playing amongst the T2 sides, or the bottom clubs in each league should simply be working on being better during the EPCR.
Champions Cup is made up of league best 15 teams, + 1, the Challenge Cup winner. Without a reason not to, I'd distribute it evenly based on each leauge, dividing into thirds and rounded up, 6 URC 5 Top14 4 English. Each winner (all four) is #1 rank and I'd have a seeding round or two for the other 12 to determine their own brackets for 2nd, 3rd, and 4th. I'd then hold a 6 game pool, home and away, with consecutive of each for those games that involve SA'n teams. Preferrably I'd have a regional thing were all SA'n teams were in the same pool but that's a bit complex for this simple idea.
That pool round further finalises the seeding for knockout round of 16. So #1 pool has essentially duked it out for finals seeding already (better venue planning), and to see who they go up against 16, 15,etc etc. Actually I think I might prefer a single pool round for seeding, and introduce the home and away for Ro16, quarters, and semis (stuffs up venue hire). General idea to produce the most competitive matches possible until the random knockout phase, and fix the random lottery of which two teams get ranked higher after pool play, and also keep the system identical for the Challenge Cup so everthing is succinct. Top T2 side promoted from last year to make 16 in Challenge Cup
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