No progress...just total failure
RFU disappointed by autumn results and Jones’ position as coach is under review
RFU chief executive Bill Sweeney last night admitted England’s woeful autumn series was ‘a real disappointment’ ahead of a review of head coach Eddie Jones’ performance.
With England booed off the pitch after Saturday’s defeat by South Africa — having scraped just one win from four at Twickenham — a panel will hold a series of meetings over the next fortnight to discuss how improvements can be made ahead of the Six Nations.
Jones insisted he ‘doesn’t really care what other people think’, but Sweeney said: ‘We would like to thank England fans for their patience and support, it matters to us how they feel.
‘Like them, we are really disappointed with the results of the Autumn Nations Series. Despite strong individual performances and some great new talent coming into the team, the overall results are not where we expect them to be.’
Jones held a series of player debriefs at England’s base yesterday. Insisting he did not hear the chorus of discontent as fans left the stadium early, he is adamant fortunes will turn around next year.
‘One hundred per cent,’ said Jones, when asked if fans should keep the faith. ‘And I am sure they’ll have doubts like you guys. I am standing in front of you and you’re telling me I don’t know how to coach, basically. Right? So that’s all right, and I am sure some fans feel like that. But it’s a progression to the World Cup, we have our ups and downs.
‘We were badly beaten at the scrum, and therefore the rest of the game becomes very difficult to judge. You can make assertions about people dropping the ball but once you’ve got that pressure then funny things happen.
‘We’re not off track. I’ve had worse days than that. Sometimes you need these games to make you understand the areas which need to be bolstered. We want to go into the Six Nations and we want to be stronger. We want to put ourselves into the position where we’re fourth or fifth going into the World Cup and we’re ready to go.’
England’s problems on Saturday stemmed from South Africa’s dominance of the set-piece.
Hooker Jamie George said: ‘We spoke about having more courage in the week and I don’t think we have that. I don’t know why. We need to go away and think about it and come back in with ideas. We need to go in (to the Six Nations) and start putting into place exactly the sort of team we want to be, because time is running out in that respect.’ Despite talk of a review, England fans can expect the RFU to be persuaded yet again that progress is real, rather than imagined. Nobody else is buying it. Not after one win from four November Tests and the worst annual return since 2008. Jones will argue that all will be fine by the World Cup, yet supporters want to see their team winning Test matches now. South Africa turned up without a raft of leading men and won by a street. They even had a player sent off and managed to deliver. The Springboks controlled the contact areas and ran amok when chances arose. The Boks are often derided as boring, but Damian Willemse, Willie Le Roux and Kurt-Lee Arendse carved open the home defence. England were all spills and no thrills. Their lack of fluency after five weeks together was alarming and disproved the official line that precious time in camp makes all the difference. Trounced in the set-piece, they lost their aerial supremacy, too. There were lineout wobbles, missed tackles, loose or dropped passes and too many aimless kicks. England again failed to launch Manu Tuilagi in attack. Near the end, against 14 men, they were unable to execute a basic passing move under no pressure at all.
Jones’ players seem to be genuinely committed to the cause, but are not being harnessed into a force which reflects their collective quality. The next annual championship looms in ten weeks and England look destined for another grim ordeal.