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Confirmed - Eddie Jones has been sacked by the RFU
By Josh Raisey
The Rugby Football Union have confirmed that they have sacked Eddie Jones as England head coach after presiding over the national team’s worst year since 2008.
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Jones oversaw a disappointing 2022 consisting of six defeats, a draw and five wins and ending with a comprehensive loss to South Africa on November 26.
The RFU’s review of a dismal Autumn Nations Series concluded on Monday and the board are now ready to ratify its decision.
An RFU statement reads:
“The Rugby Football Union (RFU) will now conclude the long-term work it has been undertaking on coach succession planning with changes set to be announced in the near future. In the interim, Richard Cockerill will take over the day to day running of the men’s performance team.”
“It is important to recognise the huge contribution Eddie has made to English rugby, winning three Six Nations Championships, one Grand Slam and taking us to a Rugby World Cup Final,” said RFU CEO, Bill Sweeney.
“He has the highest win ratio of any previous England head coach and has helped develop the leadership skills of many players and coaches. I am grateful to Eddie for all he has done for England across many areas of the game and the professional way in which he has approached reviewing the performance of the team. He has provided the panel with astute insight and meaningful lessons that will support the team performance going forward.”
The statement continued: “During his time in charge Jones steered England to three Six Nations titles, including a Grand Slam in 2016, two series wins in Australia, an unbeaten run of 18 matches, an Autumn Nations Cup, and a Rugby World Cup final in Japan.”
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“I am pleased with much that we have achieved as an England team and I look forward to watching the team’s performance in the future,” said Jones. “Many of the players and I will no doubt keep in touch and I wish them all well in their future careers.”
RFU Chair, Tom Ilube said: “The independent review panel regularly updates board on its discussions and findings. We are fully supportive of its process and recommendations.”
The review panel has regularly presented to the board during its investigation into what went wrong during an autumn that opened with defeat to Argentina, produced a solitary victory over Japan and a draw with New Zealand before signing off with an abject collapse against the Springboks.
With the World Cup in France looming, England have left it late to change their coach, yet the RFU felt it has no alternative but to act.
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And that could open the door for 43-year-old Cumbrian Steve Borthwick, who skippered England during a 57-cap England career.
He was appointed Leicester boss in 2020, and has overseen a startling transformation in the Tigers’ fortunes, highlighted by a Gallagher Premiership title triumph last season.
additional reporting PA
He was leaving after the world cup anyway. He was building a team that could win the world cup and he wasn't going to show his hand until the quarter finals at least. He's been to at least 3 world cups, 2 of which he got to the final and the other one he masterminded one of the biggest world cup upsets ever (Brighton miracle).
He was quietly pioneering a new attacking strategy which he didn't want the players to use until they needed to (and when you're trying to win a world cup, looking like the underdogs is great).
The media have put huge pressure on the RFU to dismiss him (maybe because they resented how little he respected them?), Plus it was an easy narrative to continue. A lot of the pressure came from Clive Woodward who coached England to victory in 2003 before being kicked out as lions coach shortly afterwards. The media always found fault in whoever was picked (as always, they would rather players be picked on the form they witnessed - look at Danny care for example...they moaned about him coming back for ever and when he did they said he was rubbish...same with wanting freeman to go straight back into the starting xv after being out injured for months (which is a big no no when you have no game time)
I think the RFU were weak in listening to all that. The autumn wasn't all that bad - yes they lost badly to a good Argentinan side and thrashed a second tier nation before the NZ game where individual errors stopped them from executing a game plan until the last 15 minutes where they showed how effective the new attacking strategy is and executed it with an incredible ruthlessness (which the media thought was great) until the next week when they lost for a lot of reasons (scrum, discipline, individual errors, injuries, a better side cus guys this is sport and Jones took the pressure off the players who weren't performing and onto himself)
To kick out a coach so near to a world cup is abysmal. Co captain Genge said last week that he hadnt heard of any discontent among the players when told that some pundit had heard players weren't happy. Unless Genge was lying, it seems that the RFU ignored players opinions and instead chose to satisfy the media and give in to the pressure.
And to do it without having a new coach lined up is atrocious. Not saying we'll do a 2015 but it's made the job somewhat harder for the players. Unfairly.
the RFU are cowards
The RFU is set to go one step further and will announce the first female head coach of England - It had to happen and can only increase England's chances with the ref's at next years world cup.
Patience is a virtue lost on our societies these days....
well that's fucking stupid
Absolutely ridiculous.