Eddie Jones was asked to stay on as England’s head coach until the conclusion of the 2023 World Cup before the Six Nations started and financial terms were agreed, but the Australian said he would delay his decision until the end of the tournament to see if the players were still responding to him.
It seemed they were not after the opening half in Paris when the World Cup finalists trailed 17-0, the manner of their World Cup semi-final win over New Zealand fading like a watercolour in the rain. But after they overcame Scotland and the conditions at Murrayfield before outplaying Ireland and Wales at Twickenham, it was clearer his players still had belief in his methods.
“France was due to my poor coaching rather than the players,” Jones said on Thursday. “I was really pleased with the attitude of the squad during the Six Nations and I think we are on the cusp of doing something really good. I can see us taking rugby to a different level. It is a great opportunity, something I could not turn my back on.”
The Rugby Football Union held talks with Jones shortly after the World Cup final defeat to South Africa in Yokohama and after a debrief of the tournament he was asked to carry on. “Eddie indicated there were things he wanted to make sure of,” said the governing body’s chief executive, Bill Sweeney.
“We reached agreement on the terms before the Six Nations. Our intention was to announce immediately after the tournament, but the pandemic hit at a really critical point in terms of the lockdown and the effect it had on the country so we didn’t think it was appropriate to announce it then.”
England are the favourites to win the Six Nations if the tournament is played to a conclusion when the restrictions on social gathering to contain the spread of coronavirus are lifted. Jones, along with the RFU’s executives, has taken a 25% pay cut with all bonuses cancelled, while 60% of the staff at Twickenham have been furloughed.
“We implemented that early on,” said Sweeney, who believes that a legacy of the financial crisis facing the sport will be that clubs and unions in future place greater emphasis on controlling costs. “At this stage in the crisis, there are certain people who are business critical. We will re-evaluate in a week or two and the furlough may go up slightly.”
Asked if the pay cuts at the top would be more than temporary, he replied: “It is too early to say. It is the first phase of the crisis, putting programmes in place to put us in the best shape we can be. We are taking it step by step because you do not know where the finishing line is. When you have something of this magnitude, it highlights where there are fault-lines and some of those are being exposed now.
“A number of conversations are being held around how we emerge from this the stronger. We do not want to just come back in and carry on with the same model that repeats the errors of the past. It is about how we come out of this with the game in a better place both domestically and internationally. The obvious example is that cost controls are important and we need to look at how the calendar works so we can maximise commercial revenue.”
Sweeney said he was not definitely ruling out England touring Japan in the summer, and a decision would be made in conjunction with World Rugby by the end of the month.
“There is a strong possibility it will be off, but it is slightly different to the Olympics where 213 nations and 11,000 athletes compete and is so much harder to manage. It will depend on the state of Japan and the conditioning of our players.
“What has come out of this is an approach from all the unions north and south and World Rugby to start with a blank piece of paper and say that these really are exceptional times.
“There are a number of contingency plans in place should the July tours not happen so that when we are given the go-ahead to play again we have the matches in place.”
Jones, who took over England at the end of 2015 after the hosts had failed to qualify for the knockout stages of the World Cup, is in Japan, where his wife’s family live. Part of his brief when he was appointed was to mentor English coaches and that remains. Sweeney said: “In the last few years, Neal Hartley and Paul Gustard have learned from Eddie’s coaching and gone to clubs and Steve Borthwick is off to Leicester. Part of this cycle is to ensure we have the best coaching and development plan and our aspirations for that are pretty high.”