Eddie Jones’ England to be given ‘brutally honest’ performance review, RFU says

England finished the Six Nations in fifth place after defeats to Scotland, Wales and Ireland

Duncan Bech
Wednesday 24 March 2021 08:30 GMT
Comments
England head coach Eddie Jones
England head coach Eddie Jones (Getty Images)

Your support helps us to tell the story

This election is still a dead heat, according to most polls. In a fight with such wafer-thin margins, we need reporters on the ground talking to the people Trump and Harris are courting. Your support allows us to keep sending journalists to the story.

The Independent is trusted by 27 million Americans from across the entire political spectrum every month. Unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock you out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. But quality journalism must still be paid for.

Help us keep bring these critical stories to light. Your support makes all the difference.

England’s dismal Six Nations and the performance of head coach Eddie Jones will be subject to a “brutally honest analysis”, according to the Rugby Football Union.

The second fifth-place finish of the Jones era has placed the Australian’s position under intense scrutiny, with the post-Championship debrief process finishing in mid-April.

“It needs to be a thorough, brutally honest analysis of what went wrong and why and what the issues are,” RFU chief executive Bill Sweeney said.

Losses to Scotland, Wales and Ireland condemned England to their worst Six Nations performance on the grounds of points difference and equalled the fifth-place finish of 2018.

Owen Farrell’s side entered the tournament as champions after compiling an eight-Test winning run, but over the last two months they have looked a shadow of the team that reached the final of the 2019 World Cup final.

“We certainly don’t want it to be an opportunity to wallow in excuses,” said Sweeney, who will head up a review panel consisting of established figures from within the game.

Read more:

“It has been an unusual year and I could reel off a whole list to you - we had to deal with this, we had to deal with that.

“But we don’t want to dwell on that, we want to look at the more fundamental issues. How does this impact our thinking to go through to 2023?”

PA

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in