Eddie Jones: I have moved on – if England haven't that's their problem
Eddie the Ex was back in town today, determined to look his best and show that he was well and truly over his dumping by Bill Sweeney ahead of his first return to Twickenham with the Barbarians on Sunday. “I have moved on,” Jones said, “If they are not moved on that’s their problem, not my problem.”
Maybe it was the glorious spring sunshine in London, maybe it was the terms of his non-disclosure agreement, but Jones was remarkably sanguine about his sacking by England last December having quickly found a rebound with Australia. There are, he insists, no grudges and no regrets after his seven-year tenure came to an inglorious end. “I had a great seven years here, I loved it,” Jones said. “I bet I'm the last foreign coach who coaches for seven years here. First and last.”
Read between the lines and there are a few digs here and there around England’s playing style under his successor Steve Borthwick, although nothing stinging enough to alert any legal departments. Where there was no ambiguity was that England are in his rearview mirror. The bond has been severed. The only attention he now pays them is as potential World Cup quarter-final opponents.
“I've been lucky enough to coach internationally, and when you go to a team I love the team I'm coaching, but then when I move then I don't have any regrets, any bad feelings,” Jones said. “I want that team to do OK, but there's no emotional attachment to that team any more. They're just one of the six teams in the Six Nations - I watch them, I think about like all the teams how I would coach them if I had that team, and then if we come up against them I've already got something in my head.”
It will be interesting to gauge what reaction he receives at Twickenham as head coach of the Barbarians taking on a World XV. Will those present judge Jones more on the first half of his reign which delivered a Grand Slam and World Cup final appearance or the second where they recorded back-to-back two win campaigns in the Six Nations? “I don't control that, so it's no use even thinking about it,” said Jones, who remains unapologetic for his singular focus on the World Cup.
That includes his promotion of Marcus Smith at fly half, whom he deems a long-term project.
“If I had my ex-England cap on, which I don’t, he’s a Richie Mo’unga type player who will take a long time to mature,” Jones said. “That’s the reality but is he worth maturing, I thought he was but it’s up to other people to judge.”
Smith has quickly fallen down the pecking order under Borthwick, whose channels of communication with Jones are not what they once were. “It's dried up a bit,” Jones concedes.
Nor did Jones push back on Borthwick’s contention that the England team he inherited from his one-time mentor were “not good at anything”. Jones said: “It is true. We were trying to build a team to win the World Cup. I don’t believe you are going to be able to win the World Cup by just kicking. I don’t believe you can. I can be proven wrong. But I think with the grounds as they are, you are going to need to play more positive rugby. Steve was right.
“I reckon the interesting thing watching South Africa in November is they started to play a lot more running from kick return and it opened up for their outside backs. I think that’s the trend of the game. You have to go quickly. You can’t just play slowly.”
For now his focus is on promoting the “values of the game” in his Barbarians capacity and providing Australia with a “smash-and-grab” template going into the World Cup. “We need to work a bit harder and we need to create a style of rugby that is quintessentially Australian,” Jones said. “We have been copying other teams and that is not the Australian way.”
Jones has returned to England with a third Premiership club in London Irish on the brink of collapse this season. What remains of Super Rugby are also experiencing difficulties and Jones warned that the foundations of the sport are growing ever weaker.
“Generally in the game, we’ve got a problem with the shop windows,” Jones said. “International rugby is the crème de la crème and everyone wants to watch it. If you put on an England game at Twickenham, you get 82,000 people there, so international rugby is healthy.
“If you look at the shop window (club rugby), the only healthy countries at the moment are the Top 14 (France) and Japan. The other shop windows are not healthy – you’ve just got to look at the crowds and the economic stature of the game. Things need to be done, but it’s not for me to worry about that.”
