RFU give Eddie Jones flimsy backing following England’s sixth successive loss

Jones gave a spiky response when questioned about his tactics

Jones is facing questions about his future ahead of the World Cup (Getty)

Eddie Jones has received only flimsy backing from Twickenham as the Australian fights for his future in the wake of England's series defeat by South Africa.

A sixth successive loss – five of those Tests – has rendered the tour a failure with the final instalment in Cape Town still to be played. Another setback at Newlands would register the nation's worst sequence of results since 2006 when Andy Robinson was sacked.

The Springboks brushed aside another dazzling England start to emerge more emphatic winners than at Ellis Park a week ago as the tour starts to unravel on and off the pitch.

Twickenham has stopped well short of delivering a public endorsement of Jones in response to the 23-12 defeat at Free State Stadium.

Instead, only an unconvincing statement was issued by the RFU, who declined to make chief executive Steve Brown or chairman Andy Cosslett available for interview to answer for recent events that could sink England as low as sixth in the global rankings.

“The RFU supports Eddie Jones and his coaching team,” a spokeswoman said.

Jones' contract expires in 2021, although there is provision in place to sever ties should England bomb at next year's World Cup.

Whether he remains in place come Japan 2019 is far from certain and if the slide continues into an autumn programme that opens with fixtures against South Africa and New Zealand then the RFU may be compelled to act.

Adding to the tale of woe is the conduct of Joe Marler, who swore at an England fan at Free State Stadium before Mike Brown added his voice to the verbal spat, while Ben Youngs walked away from an interview with a broadcaster after giving one answer.

And there will be no Billy or Mako Vunipola for the climax to the series. The bulldozing number eight, his team's most effective carrier, re-fractured the arm that forced him to miss four months of action earlier in the year while Mako is returning home to attend the birth of his first child.

Despite the implosion occurring around him, Jones is confident he remains the right man to lead England out of their dismal run.

“I know as a coach you have a certain role and if I wasn’t doing that role as well as I could I would have a loss of confidence,” Jones said. “My job is to make the team win and it is not winning, but I have also got a job to do which is the process of coaching. I think I am doing that as well as I can. And the results will come.

“I haven’t had too many times when I have experienced this. And it’s tough. Sometimes you have to be very disciplined in the way you think. We are only 2-3% away from turning this around. And I know that. I absolutely know that.

“Just like when I took the team over that couldn’t make it out of their World Cup pool, this is the job of the coach, to find a way to turn it around.”