Severe dip in form casts big shadow over season – with the All Blacks still to come
The England rugby juggernaut which Eddie Jones started steering back in 2016 and clocked up an impressive seventeen straight wins, is now looking like it’s stuck on the hard shoulder and waiting for breakdown recovery. What a bad 2018 it’s been for Jones and England.
Jones’s recent record is of the kind that’s ushered previous England Head Coaches swiftly towards the exit door. This year is a major annus horribilis – played 9, lost 6, won 3. Scotland, France and Ireland all defeated England in the in the Six Nations, contributing to a dismal fifth place finish for the first time. It’s been a fair while since England were beasted so badly domestically.
The Barbarians (in a non-cap match), heaped further misery in putting 63 points on England in victory in May, and whilst the nature of Barbarian games should be taken into account, that total would still have hurt Jones.
The Summer tour of South Africa offered no respite, the Springboks sealing a series victory in the first two Tests before England finally won the third, and whilst obviously a dead rubber, it was a much-needed win for a team very much on a downslope right now.
In these 6 defeats England have shipped 199 points at an average of 33 points per defeat, and that will worry Jones, his players and coaching staff, and England fans everywhere. So, what exactly has gone wrong?
Certainly, there has been a worrying lack of discipline of late with England, resulting in far too many penalties – and points – conceded. This has been significant. England have failed to engage and work with too many Referees of late. Jones and his leadership team need to address that quickly.
They also seem to have lost the ability to control a game, struggling to find a rhythm too often. This has frequently conceded both territory and possession, which has naturally damaged England.
To this observer, England have also become far to predictable in attack, with the ball-carrier often exposed or isolated, and easy prey for their opponents. From the breakdown, England have perhaps been too easy to read, ripe for turnovers or an increase in the dreaded penalty count.
Whilst England have some genuinely classy backs these days, the back three often seem underused at times, which is a great pity. This is where England do offer a genuine threat if they get decent ball and a chance to run at the opposition.
Jones’s team selections have become harder to predict of late, is he genuinely experimenting or merely tinkering? To be fair, some of that has of course been down to injury or unavailability of some players for various reasons. That hasn’t helped with stability and consistency, but perhaps this is merely the lot of the modern-day international Head Coach these days.
In personnel, Jones still has some world-class players at his disposal, we shouldn’t lose sight of that. The form may waver, but the class and quality of Maro itoje, Joe Launchbury, Eliot Daly and Owen Farrell remains obvious, and some very promising young talent is available with the likes of the Curry twins, Tom and Ben (Sale Sharks), Sam Underhill (Bath), Sam Simmonds (Exeter Chiefs), Marcus Smith (Quins) Zach Mercer (Bath) and Tom Collins (Bath) all pushing for either further recognition or a first start at some point.
Off the pitch, Jones hasn’t exactly been faultless either. Extremely misguided comments during a sponsors talk in July 2017, which came to light only in March this year. Jones described Wales as a “shit little place”, and referred to a defeat by Ireland by calling them “the scummy Irish”. Who said satire was dead, eh?
Rightly, Jones “apologised unreservedly” for his comments, but he will have fuelled antagonism from those who have long considered England to be an arrogant rugby nation – and how ironic is that considering Jones’s own nationality? Jones was also forced to apologise to Bath Rugby owner Bruce Craig, for calling him “The Donald Trump of rugby”. This followed a row over injuries sustained by Bath players whilst training on England duty.
Whilst England are enduring a wretched run of results, it’s worth noting that Jones still has the best win ratio of any England Head Coach at 81%, which must count for something. However, Jones’s clear focus and priority from the time of his appointment was the World Cup in 2019, a tournament which now seems uncomfortably close in terms of both finding form and the chance to blood new talent beforehand.
This November’s internationals will place even greater focus on Jones’s fortunes, with games against South Africa, New Zealand, Japan and Australia. Whilst England desperately need games to get themselves back on track, the first two will probably prompt concern – the Boks obviously having just beaten England in a Test series (although of course conditions at Twickenham in November will be somewhat more friendly for England than South Africa was in June), and the All Blacks remain head and shoulders above every other national Rugby Union team on the planet – and probably many other planets as well.
Australia have been firmly imprisoned in England’s back pocket in recent years, but if Australia smell a wounded animal in Jones’s side, then England could be in for a tough game. With all due respect to Japan, that game appears to be the sole banker of what looks like a challenging month of games for Jones and England.
The RFU’s CEO Steve Brown has made some interesting comments on the upcoming games, and of his support for Jones. “We plan to win every game we play. We expect success in the autumn. I don’t want to predict failure. I’d rather predict success but that’s not in blind faith. They’re all big matches. We’re planning to come out of the other side successful.”
“No one has unconditional support. I don’t have it, Eddie doesn’t have it. But what Eddie does have and the coaching team have is our confidence that they are capable of delivering success.”
It’s fair to say, with the World Cup just over a year away, the stakes have just got much higher for Jones and England, with the current mood a lot less buoyant than the heady days of Jones’s first two years in charge. A significant improvement in both performances and results is needed – and fast.
By Chris Tribe
1st August 2018
Upcoming matches, all at Twickenham Stadium, 3pm:
- 3rd November 2018 – England v South Africa
- 10th November 2018 – England v New Zealand
- 17th November 2018 – England v Japan
- 24th November 2018 – England v Australia
Copyright © 2018 Chris Tribe. All Rights Reserved.
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