'I wouldn't get rid of him' - Neil Back defends Jones despite bad call on Saracens players
Neil Back has urged Twickenham to keep faith with embattled head coach Eddie Jones in the belief he is best equipped to lead England out of their slump.
England fell to their worst Six Nations performance by finishing fifth, placing Jones at the centre of a Rugby Football Union investigation into what went wrong, with a verdict due in mid-April.
RFU chief executive Bill Sweeney has promised a “brutally honest analysis” and has declined to give Jones public support as the Australian fights for his future.
Jones’ win ratio of 77 per cent is appreciated at Twickenham and Back, England’s World Cup-winning openside, believes his success in plotting a route out of a similarly-troubled period once before must count in his favour.
“Eddie’s a good coach and his record speaks for itself, so I wouldn’t get rid of him. There’s a lot of pressure on him, but that will make him even better,” Back told the PA news agency.
“We’ve been here before under Eddie in 2018. Eighteen months later, we probably played the best any England team has played in the World Cup semi-final against New Zealand. We then got to the final.
“Eddie’s success rate, on paper, is better than any other England manager. He’ll look back on this Championship brutally to see where he and the squad could have done things differently.
“Painful lessons are sometimes very valuable going forward and finishing fifth was massively disappointing.
“He failed to read how the Saracens players who didn’t have a lot of game time would perform. He thought they’d be successful, but he was wrong and will learn from that.
“Undoubtedly there will be changes in players. He’ll bring some new players in to freshen things up.”
Sweeney will lead the debrief which is being conducted by a panel of rugby figures and Jones will be quizzed on concerns over selection, tactics and discipline.
Despite the defeats by Scotland, Wales and Ireland – the first time England have lost to all three home unions since 1976 – Jones’ record of a Grand Slam, two Six Nations titles and a World Cup final appearance is expected to save him.
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Great to see the biggest clash between the Boks and ABs. The Boks have a better replacement bench and a developing squad for RWC 2027. The ABs could have won but for poor penalty kicks from DMac and a bad decision from Scott Barrett to kick for touch and not at the poles. Le Roux should be pensioned off and either Fassi or Willemse when fit play fullback. Sacha must not try to be too fancy but has great potential. Pollard is still the best 10. Hopefully Libbok gets his chance to play in Argentina. Etsebeth and Marx enjoyed immense games. The ABs are a work in progress but they require better forward like those of old AB teams.
Go to commentsThey also use a far more consistent scale.
Rugby pass seem to have a different scale for each player based on the authors expectations or how much he likes them.
Can't fathom how Moodie and Reece both were a 3.
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