With England debrief due RFU bosses come out in defence of Eddie Jones

England had won 22 out of 23 matches under Eddie Jones before the 2018 Natwest Six Nations. The Australian's contract extension to 2021 with the RFU, which he signed in January, was hailed a masterstroke in most quarters. Jones was being hotly tipped to be the next British and Irish Lions head coach for the tour to South Africa.

Fast forward two months and three defeats later and England RFU Chief Executive Steve Brown has had to defend his head coach.

“Eddie and his coaches have my confidence and maybe the results mean that we were not quite as good as our results were showing before but we are not as bad as fifth in the Six Nations and that is an important point. These are the moment when you don’t knee jerk without the evidence and data. We are not knee jerking and we will bounce back and I know that this is not a place Eddie wants to be in."

Jones and his coaching team are to appear before the RFU board and Professional Game Board next week to do their customary Six Nations debrief, as they try to explain where it went wrong. It was the first time since 2006 that England had lost three matches in a Six Nations campaign.

“The results in the Six Nations were not what we wanted, not what we expected and there is no attempt by us to dress this up. Everyone is deeply disappointed, we will learn from this and make it doesn’t happen again.

"The debrief has started today and it is one we do after every tournament to identify how we can move forward by learning lessons. Eddie has an 86 percent winning record with England and we don’t believe you become a bad coach or team overnight. We have hit a bit of a bump."

Sir Clive Woodward had suggested that England had stagnated, a claim wholly rejected by Brown.

“I don’t agree with the view that we have been stagnating for 18 months and the key for us is focussing on 2019 to get everything in place to be in the strongest position to be capable of winning the World Cup.”