Eddie Jones: RFU yet to open talks on contract extension after Rugby World Cup 2019 final defeat
Jones’ current contract runs until 2021 but the RFU would like him to take charge in France in 2023
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Your support makes all the difference.England are determined to keep Eddie Jones as head coach through to the next Rugby World Cup in 2023 despite Saturday’s missed opportunity against South Africa - but have not yet entered into negotiations over a new contract.
As the dust settled on England’s demoralizing 32-12 defeat against South Africa to lose the Rugby World Cup 2019 final, Rugby Football Union chief executive Bill Sweeney confirmed that he is delighted with how Jones has led the national team, even if they fell short at the final hurdle.
Jones took England from a pool-stage exit in 2015 under predecessor Stuart Lancaster to beating the All Blacks and finishing runners-up at Japan 2019, although the poor performance in the final did leave a sense of dejection among the squad in the immediate aftermath in Yokohama.
But Sweeney revealed that one of his first priorities upon returning to England will to finalise what Jones wants to do with his future, given that he is only contracted for another two years as England boss until the summer of 2021.
“One of the first priorities when we get back will be to sit down and have a chat,” Sweeney said in Tokyo. “We’ve already had a couple of conversations and when we get back we will formalise that more. We will do it as a matter of urgency. You don’t like these things to hang out there for a long period of time anyway, so it will be sooner rather than later.
“There’s a lot of emotions flying around after a game so let the dust settle a little bit and then we’ll see where his head’s at, see how he feels about it. But the first step is to honour that contract through to 2021 and then we’ll discuss what goes on beyond that.”
The problem for the RFU is that the 59-year-old Jones is only tied down for half of the next World Cup cycle, which would leave England potentially facing a change of coach halfway through the build-up to the 2023 World Cup in France.
As a result, Sweeney would be in favour of tying Jones down through to the end of the cycle by handing him a contract extension – but only if the deal works for all parties given that Jones is already the highest-paid coach in world rugby.
“It makes sense doesn’t it?” added Sweeney. “If you’re going to go through to France 2023 it’s nice to have that unbroken stretch, but both parties have got to be completely happy with it and we’ll chat about that when we get back.
“He’s one of the world’s best coaches, if not the best coach, despite the result yesterday. When you’re in that position, you’re going to have people sniffing around and you can imagine the story Australia would put together.
“We can only control our relationship with him and we can only control what we will wrap around him to enable us to perform at our best. We can’t speculate over other nations. We are conscious of it but it doesn’t concern me much, I don’t lose any sleep over other countries thinking about him.”
Jones will undergo the normal performance review post-World Cup with the RFU set to speak to the squad to understand what did and didn’t go right, though given the positive noises coming out of the camp, Sweeney “doesn’t expect anything shocking” to emerge as it has done after the previous two campaigns.
“I think he’s done a fantastic job with this squad, look where we were four years ago,” Sweeney said. “I don’t think those scars will ever go from not getting out of the group but look at what he’s done to bring them here, some of the risks he’s taken to bring them in and the fact that he’s changed that by unearthing some fantastic players now that have huge careers going ahead with England.
“He gets on well with that squad, he’s committed to England rugby, so I think he’s got an awful lot more to offer yet.
“It’s not job done yet, it’s a bit like a pipeline and there’s other players out there who need to be brought on. He’s probably going to look to get a pool together of 50-55 players together who can go the entire distance so he will be looking long-term, I don’t think he’ll just phase himself out purely on the two-year basis. We just need to sit down when we get back, have a couple bottles of red wine and chat about where it goes.”
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