Eddie Jones Not Out

[eldanielfire]

It's not serious to discuss Lancaster without mentioning the 15 World Cup. Wales was bad enough but I'd argue that the Australia loss/surrender was probably the worst English capitulation in the modern era, probably only rivalled by the 30-3 drubbing in Cardiff, also under Lancaster. Jones took essentially the same side and was a try away from winning consecutive Grand Slams.

This isn't a defence of Eddie seven years later, of course. This is now two poor campaigns on the spin, and two years of a non-existent attack.

This was the exact same points being made in 2018. And Jones then prodcued a world cup finals run that was only torpeadoed by a surprising resurgence by South Africa. I suspect Jones will again prodcue a godo world cup. A shame he has to produce all the crap along the way.

[SaintK]

If Scotland wins against Ireland, and France beat Englsnd by more than 7pts, England could finish 5th

If Jones survives this?!

If England lose to France without getting any bonus points then Scotland only need a losing bonus point to go ahead of England. Wales need a 5-point win against Italy to go ahead of England.

Arguably, fifth place is the most likely outcome for England after the last round.

That would be three fifth place finishes for Jones in just 7 championships (43%).

With all the resources and talents in England this is surely unacceptable for the RFU? Jones is a poor coach and needs to go, however as a Scot I am delighted that he remains in post. Please keep him England!

Obviously not as he's still in place!
There will probably be another secret review of what went wrong that is never published and Jones will clear himself of any blame and accountability and carry on

[Crash669]

Clearly Eddie's only metric for success is the RWC and nothing else matters, presumably because he's haunted by being the nearly man so many times. So opinion on his regime rests on whether you agree that the world cup is all that matters or not.

Personally it's not, I value England being a dominant side in the 6N's and beating the SH teams regularly as much as a cup run. Let's face it if we'd won in 07 we wouldn't have been the best team in the world and if we'd lost in 03 we still would have been dominant for 2 years before it.

[Paddington Bear]

It's not serious to discuss Lancaster without mentioning the 15 World Cup. Wales was bad enough but I'd argue that the Australia loss/surrender was probably the worst English capitulation in the modern era, probably only rivalled by the 30-3 drubbing in Cardiff, also under Lancaster. Jones took essentially the same side and was a try away from winning consecutive Grand Slams.

This isn't a defence of Eddie seven years later, of course. This is now two poor campaigns on the spin, and two years of a non-existent attack.

See I think it's not serious to discuss him while fixating on the world cup. It's a once in four year tournament, what coaches do the rest of the time is of far greater relevance to whether they and their side are any good.

He and his side were probably too raw for the real top end challenges they faced. We'll never know if he'd have taken them there himself if given the opportunity to carry on.

Which is fine except in four years Lancaster didn't win anything, his main achievement being a (highly memorable) win over an exhausted All Blacks side that missed a bunch of kicks.

This was the exact same points being made in 2018. And Jones then prodcued a world cup finals run that was only torpeadoed by a surprising resurgence by South Africa. I suspect Jones will again prodcue a godo world cup. A shame he has to produce all the crap along the way.

Yes that has to be our hope from here, though I think we actually played some half decent rugby in 2018 and were on the wrong side of some decent games. Less true recently.

Clearly Eddie's only metric for success is the RWC and nothing else matters, presumably because he's haunted by being the nearly man so many times. So opinion on his regime rests on whether you agree that the world cup is all that matters or not.

Personally it's not, I value England being a dominant side in the 6N's and beating the SH teams regularly as much as a cup run. Let's face it if we'd won in 07 we wouldn't have been the best team in the world and if we'd lost in 03 we still would have been dominant for 2 years before it.

3 titles and one grand slam having won the tournament once since '03 suggests he hasn't done horrendously on this metric, albeit with likely three bottom half finishes in that as well. Would be interested in seeing data on this but would imagine our success rate over the SH is up there with Woodward's under Jones.

[LenCohen]

Available immediately
Eddie O'Sullivan
Michael Bradley
Matt Williams

Eddie O'Sullivan, the not so successful ex Ireland coach? Very successful depending on who you talk to.
Michael Bradley, who? Vastly experienced pro coach.
Matt Williams, not high profile enough Former Scotland & Leinster coach. You need to learn a bit more about rugby outside your braai circle.

I think you've both been whooooshed

[sockwithaticket]

It's not serious to discuss Lancaster without mentioning the 15 World Cup. Wales was bad enough but I'd argue that the Australia loss/surrender was probably the worst English capitulation in the modern era, probably only rivalled by the 30-3 drubbing in Cardiff, also under Lancaster. Jones took essentially the same side and was a try away from winning consecutive Grand Slams.

This isn't a defence of Eddie seven years later, of course. This is now two poor campaigns on the spin, and two years of a non-existent attack.

See I think it's not serious to discuss him while fixating on the world cup. It's a once in four year tournament, what coaches do the rest of the time is of far greater relevance to whether they and their side are any good.

He and his side were probably too raw for the real top end challenges they faced. We'll never know if he'd have taken them there himself if given the opportunity to carry on.

Which is fine except in four years Lancaster didn't win anything, his main achievement being a (highly memorable) win over an exhausted All Blacks side that missed a bunch of kicks.

Every year bar a world cup year there is one trophy to win and there's a 1 in 5 chance to do that (sorry Italy). There's just not that much to win if you mean trophies, so I'm not sure how much that should be held against anyone.

If you're going to say Eddie was one try away from consecutive grandslams we can also say Stu was one try away from a couple of titles.

Boosting our win rate and having us play some actual rugby was an achievement after Johnson. It just doesn't come with a trophy.

Eddie's peaks have been higher, the lows have been lower and are increasing in frequency.

[Lobby]

It's not serious to discuss Lancaster without mentioning the 15 World Cup. Wales was bad enough but I'd argue that the Australia loss/surrender was probably the worst English capitulation in the modern era, probably only rivalled by the 30-3 drubbing in Cardiff, also under Lancaster. Jones took essentially the same side and was a try away from winning consecutive Grand Slams.

This isn't a defence of Eddie seven years later, of course. This is now two poor campaigns on the spin, and two years of a non-existent attack.

See I think it's not serious to discuss him while fixating on the world cup. It's a once in four year tournament, what coaches do the rest of the time is of far greater relevance to whether they and their side are any good.

He and his side were probably too raw for the real top end challenges they faced. We'll never know if he'd have taken them there himself if given the opportunity to carry on.

Which is fine except in four years Lancaster didn't win anything, his main achievement being a (highly memorable) win over an exhausted All Blacks side that missed a bunch of kicks.

This was the exact same points being made in 2018. And Jones then prodcued a world cup finals run that was only torpeadoed by a surprising resurgence by South Africa. I suspect Jones will again prodcue a godo world cup. A shame he has to produce all the crap along the way.

Yes that has to be our hope from here, though I think we actually played some half decent rugby in 2018 and were on the wrong side of some decent games. Less true recently.

Clearly Eddie's only metric for success is the RWC and nothing else matters, presumably because he's haunted by being the nearly man so many times. So opinion on his regime rests on whether you agree that the world cup is all that matters or not.

Personally it's not, I value England being a dominant side in the 6N's and beating the SH teams regularly as much as a cup run. Let's face it if we'd won in 07 we wouldn't have been the best team in the world and if we'd lost in 03 we still would have been dominant for 2 years before it.

3 titles and one grand slam having won the tournament once since '03 suggests he hasn't done horrendously on this metric, albeit with likely three bottom half finishes in that as well. Would be interested in seeing data on this but would imagine our success rate over the SH is up there with Woodward's under Jones.

Jones also managed a 3-0 series win in Australia.

It should also be remembered that Lancaster’s failure in the World Cup was spectacularly awful. To fail to get out of the group in your own home World Cup (the first hosts to do so) having lost to a Wales team decimated by injuries, and a mediocre Australian team (that only beat Scotland thanks to an egregious refereeing error) is uniquely dreadful for a tier 1 team.

Edited to add that I think Jones should have been replaced after the last World Cup, and the performances in the last two years have been unacceptable. But he undoubtedly has a much better record than Lancaster.

[Paddington Bear]

See I think it's not serious to discuss him while fixating on the world cup. It's a once in four year tournament, what coaches do the rest of the time is of far greater relevance to whether they and their side are any good.

He and his side were probably too raw for the real top end challenges they faced. We'll never know if he'd have taken them there himself if given the opportunity to carry on.

Which is fine except in four years Lancaster didn't win anything, his main achievement being a (highly memorable) win over an exhausted All Blacks side that missed a bunch of kicks.

This was the exact same points being made in 2018. And Jones then prodcued a world cup finals run that was only torpeadoed by a surprising resurgence by South Africa. I suspect Jones will again prodcue a godo world cup. A shame he has to produce all the crap along the way.

Yes that has to be our hope from here, though I think we actually played some half decent rugby in 2018 and were on the wrong side of some decent games. Less true recently.

Clearly Eddie's only metric for success is the RWC and nothing else matters, presumably because he's haunted by being the nearly man so many times. So opinion on his regime rests on whether you agree that the world cup is all that matters or not.

Personally it's not, I value England being a dominant side in the 6N's and beating the SH teams regularly as much as a cup run. Let's face it if we'd won in 07 we wouldn't have been the best team in the world and if we'd lost in 03 we still would have been dominant for 2 years before it.

3 titles and one grand slam having won the tournament once since '03 suggests he hasn't done horrendously on this metric, albeit with likely three bottom half finishes in that as well. Would be interested in seeing data on this but would imagine our success rate over the SH is up there with Woodward's under Jones.

Jones also managed a 3-0 series win in Australia.

It should also be remembered that Lancaster’s failure in the World Cup was spectacularly awful. To fail to get out of the group in your own home World Cup (the first hosts to do so) having lost to a Wales team decimated by injuries, and a mediocre Australian team (that only beat Scotland thanks to an egregious refereeing error) is uniquely dreadful for a tier 1 team.

Edited to add that I think Jones should have been replaced after the last World Cup, and the performances in the last two years have been unacceptable. But he undoubtedly has a much better record than Lancaster.

I think this is fair. Our scrum disintegrating at the hands of the Australians towards the end of that game in 2015 remains seared in my mind, even with never having re-watched it. We shouldn't rewrite the era just because things aren't great now.

[JM2K6]

Also fair to say that England bombing out in 2015 was largely a self inflicted wound - the sudden need to get the squad "lighter and leaner" completely depowered us. We went from a good 6N side to one that looked worryingly weak in the WC warmups, let alone the tournament proper.

[Kawazaki]

It's pointless assessing Jones's record (which is clearly in decline) without also referencing his effect on professional rugby in England and the overall image of the England rugby team. He runs his mouth off all the time in the lead-in to test matches which is just embarrassing. After 7 years, he has zero relationship with the Premiership DoRs, in fact, the DoRs actively don't like him and they certainly don't trust him. This is a massive indictment of Jones's lack of ability to develop working relationships with primary stakeholders in English rugby. He even openly dismisses the Premiership as an environment good enough to produce a high enough standard comparable with test rugby. Then we have to look at the churn of coaches that he gets through and then the subsequent quality of the recruiting done to fill the gaps. This has led England to have a coaching group that includes coaches literally completely new to any form of rugby union (Siebold) or with precious little previous experience (Gleeson) coaching England players used to a far higher-calibre and qualified coaching environment with their clubs. I daresay the irony of Eddie Jones in his usual pre-match excuse outburst saying that Ireland are the most 'cohesive' team in the world whilst he's overseen the kind of churn in his own management group would have been completely lost on Jones.

Jones has become a monster, or perhaps that should be, the monster that is always there within him has now become fully manifest. Things are not going to get any better. If they do then it will be in spite of him from now on.

[Paddington Bear]

Oh Jesus yeah everyone loved us before Eddie Jones took charge.

[inactionman]

It's pointless assessing Jones's record (which is clearly in decline) without also referencing his effect on professional rugby in England and the overall image of the England rugby team. He runs his mouth off all the time in the lead-in to test matches which is just embarrassing. After 7 years, he has zero relationship with the Premiership DoRs, in fact, the DoRs actively don't like him and they certainly don't trust him. This is a massive indictment of Jones's lack of ability to develop working relationships with primary stakeholders in English rugby. He even openly dismisses the Premiership as an environment good enough to produce a high enough standard comparable with test rugby. Then we have to look at the churn of coaches that he gets through and then the subsequent quality of the recruiting done to fill the gaps. This has led England to have a coaching group that includes coaches literally completely new to any form of rugby union (Siebold) or with precious little previous experience (Gleeson) coaching England players used to a far higher-calibre and qualified coaching environment with their clubs. I daresay the irony of Eddie Jones in his usual pre-match excuse outburst saying that Ireland are the most 'cohesive' team in the world whilst he's overseen the kind of churn in his own management group would have been completely lost on Jones.

Jones has become a monster, or perhaps that should be, the monster that is always there within him has now become fully manifest. Things are not going to get any better. If they do then it will be in spite of him from now on.

This does annoy me, particularly as I'm not even sure he's 'doing a 'Mourinho' to try and act as the lightening rod for bile to deflect from his players (it takes some doing to be more dislikeable than John Terry) and build a siege mentality. He just seems to like doing it, and it's cheap and tawdry.

You also missed him routinely breaking players for very hard to understand reasons, in a few cases terminally.

[inactionman]

Oh Jesus yeah everyone loved us before Eddie Jones took charge.

I think it's fair to say there are some other persons of other nations that will always look badly on England, regardless. We could be a team of Chris Woakeses and it would make no difference.

Jones gives them good reason to look badly, which is another matter - I don't like that behaviour in any sense, but most of all when it's coming from us.

[OomStruisbaai]

Lifetime achievement award for braindead posting has long been awarded to OomPB

Vokof doos. I got a nice 5 page thread running here while you have a semi.

[eldanielfire]

Also fair to say that England bombing out in 2015 was largely a self inflicted wound - the sudden need to get the squad "lighter and leaner" completely depowered us. We went from a good 6N side to one that looked worryingly weak in the WC warmups, let alone the tournament proper.

Which is the fallacy of appinting an inexperienced coaching team with around one seaosn of head coach experience, and even that was a relegation.

It's bonkers the RFU have never soted out it's recruitment process aroudn the test side in the whole professional era.

Post Woodward, Robinson was inexperienced as head coach at tests level, Ashton was an emergency appointment with similarly little, Johnson ahd no coaching experience and still ahd to dela witht he failed Wells and Ford combo who stunk under 3 head coaches and Lancaster had one year of relegated experience. Even Eddie Jones was a late appointment done in a panic and thousands paid out to break his contract. And the numerous occasions the RFU did it as Jones coaches suddenly left. It's pretty much been one outdated lot to a series of inexpereinced coaches and the panic appointments after they, unsurprisingly, fail to reach Jones.

The RFU must and should have a recruitment stragety ready this year to attract and employ the very best head coach and assistants for England to be in place come the end of the next RWC.

[Chilli]

Also fair to say that England bombing out in 2015 was largely a self inflicted wound - the sudden need to get the squad "lighter and leaner" completely depowered us. We went from a good 6N side to one that looked worryingly weak in the WC warmups, let alone the tournament proper.

Which is the fallacy of appinting an inexperienced coaching team with around one seaosn of head coach experience, and even that was a relegation.

It's bonkers the RFU have never soted out it's recruitment process aroudn the test side in the whole professional era.

Post Woodward, Robinson was inexperienced as head coach at tests level, Ashton was an emergency appointment with similarly little, Johnson ahd no coaching experience and still ahd to dela witht he failed Wells and Ford combo who stunk under 3 head coaches and Lancaster had one year of relegated experience. Even Eddie Jones was a late appointment done in a panic and thousands paid out to break his contract. And the numerous occasions the RFU did it as Jones coaches suddenly left. It's pretty much been one outdated lot to a series of inexpereinced coaches and the panic appointments after they, unsurprisingly, fail to reach Jones.

The RFU must and should have a recruitment stragety ready this year to attract and employ the very best head coach and assistants for England to be in place come the end of the next RWC.

Realistically, who would you have?

[eldanielfire]

Realistically, who would you have?

Hard to say. It felt like there were more obvious contenders last time around. But the top kiwi coaches must be part of the consideration.

[Chilli]

Realistically, who would you have?

Hard to say. It felt like there were more obvious contenders last time around. But the top kiwi coaches must be part of the consideration.

I wonder if someone like Scott Robertson would be interested?

[Ovals]

Realistically, who would you have?

Hard to say. It felt like there were more obvious contenders last time around. But the top kiwi coaches must be part of the consideration.

I wonder if someone like Scott Robertson would be interested?

Would Borthwick not be a prime candidate ?

[Kawazaki]

Realistically, who would you have?

Hard to say. It felt like there were more obvious contenders last time around. But the top kiwi coaches must be part of the consideration.

I wonder if someone like Scott Robertson would be interested?

£800k a year plus living expenses will get anyone's attention.

[sockwithaticket]

Hard to say. It felt like there were more obvious contenders last time around. But the top kiwi coaches must be part of the consideration.

I wonder if someone like Scott Robertson would be interested?

Would Borthwick not be a prime candidate ?

He's turned Leicester from basket case to a likely play off team, but he's not won anything with them yet and a bit of sustained success would be preferable.

Ideally he'd go off and get experienced actually as in international head coach as the dynamic of having sporadic access to players is very different to coaching them week in week out, but few positions can pay more than a Premiership head coach or DoR role.

[Hugo]

Also fair to say that England bombing out in 2015 was largely a self inflicted wound - the sudden need to get the squad "lighter and leaner" completely depowered us. We went from a good 6N side to one that looked worryingly weak in the WC warmups, let alone the tournament proper.

Which is the fallacy of appinting an inexperienced coaching team with around one seaosn of head coach experience, and even that was a relegation.

It's bonkers the RFU have never soted out it's recruitment process aroudn the test side in the whole professional era.

Post Woodward, Robinson was inexperienced as head coach at tests level, Ashton was an emergency appointment with similarly little, Johnson ahd no coaching experience and still ahd to dela witht he failed Wells and Ford combo who stunk under 3 head coaches and Lancaster had one year of relegated experience. Even Eddie Jones was a late appointment done in a panic and thousands paid out to break his contract. And the numerous occasions the RFU did it as Jones coaches suddenly left. It's pretty much been one outdated lot to a series of inexpereinced coaches and the panic appointments after they, unsurprisingly, fail to reach Jones.

The RFU must and should have a recruitment stragety ready this year to attract and employ the very best head coach and assistants for England to be in place come the end of the next RWC.

All good points, there is no pattern or plan to many (any?) of these appointments. Jones was a reactive appointment and got the job on the strength of Japans showing at the 2015 RWC after he was committed to WP.

Can someone remind me how did Deano never end up in the England job? Pre bloodgate obviously.

[Ovals]

I wonder if someone like Scott Robertson would be interested?

Would Borthwick not be a prime candidate ?

He's turned Leicester from basket case to a likely play off team, but he's not won anything with them yet and a bit of sustained success would be preferable.

Ideally he'd go off and get experienced actually as in international head coach as the dynamic of having sporadic access to players is very different to coaching them week in week out, but few positions can pay more than a Premiership head coach or DoR role.

He does, though, have experience coaching in the England set up, during Eddie's more successful period, and with Italy.

[JM2K6]

Also fair to say that England bombing out in 2015 was largely a self inflicted wound - the sudden need to get the squad "lighter and leaner" completely depowered us. We went from a good 6N side to one that looked worryingly weak in the WC warmups, let alone the tournament proper.

Which is the fallacy of appinting an inexperienced coaching team with around one seaosn of head coach experience, and even that was a relegation.

It's bonkers the RFU have never soted out it's recruitment process aroudn the test side in the whole professional era.

Post Woodward, Robinson was inexperienced as head coach at tests level, Ashton was an emergency appointment with similarly little, Johnson ahd no coaching experience and still ahd to dela witht he failed Wells and Ford combo who stunk under 3 head coaches and Lancaster had one year of relegated experience. Even Eddie Jones was a late appointment done in a panic and thousands paid out to break his contract. And the numerous occasions the RFU did it as Jones coaches suddenly left. It's pretty much been one outdated lot to a series of inexpereinced coaches and the panic appointments after they, unsurprisingly, fail to reach Jones.

The RFU must and should have a recruitment stragety ready this year to attract and employ the very best head coach and assistants for England to be in place come the end of the next RWC.

All good points, there is no pattern or plan to many (any?) of these appointments. Jones was a reactive appointment and got the job on the strength of Japans showing at the 2015 RWC after he was committed to WP.

Can someone remind me how did Deano never end up in the England job? Pre bloodgate obviously.

He and the RFU did not get along at all.

[JM2K6]

Also a bigger problem is that very few club coaches want to be in charge of England. Club rugby and international rugby might co-exist uneasily, but there's quite clearly still a major disconnect between the two in terms of player management, coaching styles, communication, etc.

[Kawazaki]

England need a director of rugby. At the moment, Jones reports to the CEO of the RFU or to be more precise, Jones reports to nobody. He's under zero pressure to perform, he has no accountability and he's simply not being managed. He's got no working relationships with the Premiership DoRs which is a damning indictment after 7 years in the job. And Jones is grossly overpaid, as are the England players.

[OomStruisbaai]

That's just wrong compare to South Africa. Rassie did a lot to streamline the Springboks with the franchises. He and Nienaber will even help with the coaching of the franchises. There are a good relationship between national and provincial

[Lemoentjie]

Petition to rename Napoleon syndrome to Eddie Jones syndrome.

The man is becoming increasingly unhinged:

England rugby head coach Eddie Jones says facing the USA will be like facing "15 Donald Trumps" because they will come out "all guns blazing"

[JM2K6]

That's from the previous decade.

[Guy Smiley]

That's from the previous decade.

To be fair, that's where most Saffa fans normally reside.

[OomStruisbaai]

Got this one wrong.

Will the RFU fire Eddie per fax?

[ASMO]

Got this one wrong.

Will the RFU fire Eddie per fax?

They wont fire him, not because he is completely useless, but because it would require them to admit they made a mistake by extending his contract and not firing him when they had the chance, the fuckers are the RFU will never do that.

[OomStruisbaai]

Got this one wrong.

Will the RFU fire Eddie per fax?

They wont fire him, not because he is completely useless, but because it would require them to admit they made a mistake by extending his contract and not firing him when they had the chance, the fuckers are the RFU will never do that.

They'll wait till Rassie's citing expire in September

[Slick]

Looks like most rugby journos have kept their powder relatively dry until the end of the tournament and are now going full bore for him

[Guy Smiley]

Got this one wrong.

Will the RFU fire Eddie per fax?

They wont fire him, not because he is completely useless, but because it would require them to admit they made a mistake by extending his contract and not firing him when they had the chance, the fuckers are the RFU will never do that.

Yet more uncanny parallels with the NZ situation and their extension of Fozzie's contract before he'd had to actually prove himself.

[Kawazaki]

Looks like most rugby journos have kept their powder relatively dry until the end of the tournament and are now going full bore for him

We should cut and paste and add links here...

[SaintK]

Looks like most rugby journos have kept their powder relatively dry until the end of the tournament and are now going full bore for him

We should cut and paste and add links here...

....................and e-mail them to BIll Sweeney

[Kawazaki]

I just read the Stephen Jones piece. He writes articles for the Sunday Times that I'd think twice about hitting send to post in here!

He hates Eddie Jones more than we all do.

[Kawazaki]

These are the words of a conman. He's like the builder who keeps asking for more interim payments to do a little bit more and never finishes the extension.

I can't believe he had the fucking nerve to ask us to look at the French team and say it's taken them three years to reach this level. Ok Eddie, what the fuck have you been doing for the last three years then?

I'd deport the cunt. Where's Priti?

Eddie Jones has called on a frustrated and disappointed English rugby public to “have some faith” in him despite another poor Six Nations campaign.
England have finished the Six Nations with a losing record — two wins from five games — in three of their last five championship campaigns.
In 2019, England managed three wins and went on to reach the World Cup final. In 2020 they won the Covid-interrupted championship on points difference from France.
But since then it has been two years of under-achievement, leading to intense scrutiny on Jones’s role as head coach and how the RFU will handle this crisis.
Jones insisted he was the right man to complete his project of turning England into a team that can return to Paris in the autumn of 2023 and win the World Cup.
“They’ve got to have some faith,” Jones said. “I think I’ve done a reasonable job for England for the past seven years. We’re going through a period now where we’re rebuilding the team and it takes time.
“Look at the French team, it took them three years to win the Championship. We’ve rebuilt the side from the last Six Nations. I think the progress is very positive.

“The results aren’t the results we’d like — we’d all like to be winning tournaments and be at the top of the table, but we’re not quite good enough to do that now. But within the next 12 to 14 months when we prepare for the World Cup, we will be.”
The mantra from Jones and his players immediately after their defeat by France was that they would get it right by the World Cup and that 12 competitive Tests will be enough time.
France, meanwhile, were shedding tears of joy at winning a first grand slam in 12 years, undermining the point that not everything can be about building. There is joy to be had and progress to be made in winning now.
Jones decided after last year’s Six Nations — two wins from five and a fifth place finish — that he needed to rebuild the team. He questioned whether some senior players had the hunger to go to the World Cup and senior figures such as the Vunipola brothers have not been seen in an England camp since.
Jones said the situation was different this time, despite the win-loss ratio being the same, because he was blooding new players such as Marcus Smith and Freddie Steward.
“It is a completely different situation. I can’t question the effort and spirit of the team. But there are areas of our game we need to improve and there is about probably a three per cent gap between where we are and where we need to be,” he said.
“That three per cent comes through a lot of hard work, a lot of dedicated focused work on certain areas of our game, certain areas to build in our game, and if we do that we are going to be in a good position. So, much more positive for England than 12 months ago.”
England talked up their attack all tournament but managed just three tries in four Tests against Scotland, Wales, Ireland and France. Jones said that he was pleased with England’s attack — up until the finishing.
“One of the things we did really well was attack well up until the 22. And then our attack breaks down consistently around that 22, too consistently it was turned over, where our support wasn’t good enough,” he said.
“So we definitely need to improve our support play and we need to improve our finishing. If I just look at yesterday’s game, we got in France’s 22 seven times. They got in our 22 five times, but they executed at 80 per cent. We executed at I think about 40 per cent - and that’s the difference in the scoreline.
“How do we improve that finishing? Again, it comes through some hard work. We have got a 9, 10 and 15 who have played 26 Tests between them and they’ll be much better for this learning experience. We have got to make sure we keep faith with him, because they’ve got great potential.
“Obviously we are disappointed with the results, we would have liked [to come] higher than third. Our aim was to win the tournament, but there are also a lot of things to be positive about.
“The development of the team I think is going in the right direction, a number of good young players coming through. The amount that the players have learned during the tournament is immense and I have never been so excited about the development of the team.”

[Hugo]

He is taking the piss out of us, three percent? Fuck off.