If Jones is sticking around, it’s time to prove he is worth it

England's head coach Eddie Jones. Photo: Getty

Gavin Mairs

March 23 2021 02:30 AM

At the core of Rugby Football Union’s urgent review of England’s humiliating Six Nations Championship must lie one key question: is Eddie Jones still worth it?

Jones, of course, has credit in the bank. It was only nine days ago that his side defeated France with a thrilling performance at Twickenham. Last October his side won a third Six Nations championship in five years, and only 16 months ago reached the World Cup final on the back of a brilliant dismantling of the All Blacks.

England under Jones also equalled New Zealand’s record of 18 successive Test victories when his side won their first 17 games of his tenure, which is now in its sixth year.

In this 64 games in charge, he has won 49 out of 64 games, a win ratio of 76pc, still the highest of any England head coach, with Jack Rowell second on 72pc, followed by Geoff Cooke and World Cup-winning coach Clive Woodward (71pc).

And yet those achievements have come at a considerable cost. Not only he is the highest-paid coach in world rugby, even after accepting a pay cut because of the financial impact of the pandemic, but he has by far the largest budget (which he exceeded by around £900,000 at a time when the RFU had to make 54 redundancies because of cuts), while the high turnover of staff during his tenure has also at times proved costly.

After England won the first two Six Nations under Jones, including a Grand Slam in 2016, he was largely given a free reign at Twickenham. He was allowed to continue with a coaching consultancy in Japan with Suntory Sungoliath and take up a new one with San Diego Legion in USA’s Major League Rugby (MLR) – arrangements that would be unthinkable for his England counterpart Gareth Southgate – as well as many commercial activities.

Throughout the first four years of Jones’s tenure, however, any management issues or PR gaffes were overlooked, on the promise that he could win the World Cup for England. And he almost did.

Now, 16 months on from that final, almost entirely the same group of players have just finished fifth in the Six Nations, for the second time in four campaigns and the question looms large: is the carrot of potentially winning the World Cup in two years’ time enough, as it was during the previous slump in 2018?

Six Nations prize money is an important revenue stream for the governing body (particularly given the current financial pressures) and they tend to budget around a second-place finish, which is worth just over £3.5m compared to £1.5m for fifth place.

The alarming slump in England’s form justifies a forensic, wide-ranging review by the RFU. Jones has enough credit in the bank to remain in place, but he should be given clear objectives to be judged on through to the end of the autumn Test series this year.

If the RFU is not going to sack him, this has to be the moment when it asserts greater control and asks Jones to show conclusively that he has a master plan to take his team forward.

The myth that it takes at least four years to build a World Cup-winning team was debunked by Rassie Erasmus, who took a failing South African team and turned them around in under two years, without anywhere near the resources or support that Jones enjoys. It is time for Jones to prove he is really worth it.