In the cases of attack-skills coach Mike Catt and forwards coach Graham Rowntree it seems barely worth their while turning up and even defence mastermind Andy Farrell, who Jones coached at Saracens six years ago, looks unlikely to survive.
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Under Stuart Lancaster, England were one win away from grand slams in 2013, 2014 and 2015 and lost their crunch pool games against Wales and Australia at the Rugby World Cup. A runner-up with the Wallabies in 2003 and assistant to South Africa’s victory in 2007, Jones believes he has the credentials to complete a mass overhaul.
Jones will meet with the Lancaster’s assistant coaches this weekend to give them a chance to plead their cases to stay on.
I’ll be watching with interest… “That is one of my dreams”, Jones said. You can do a lot with players in four years and then it is time for someone else to do it.
The Australian will begin as Lancaster’s successor in December ahead of the Six Nations and becomes the first non-Englishman to be given the job. We’ll create our own style and I want the players to believe in that 100 per cent.
“There’s non-negotiables to coaching an worldwide team – you have to have experience, you have to have a winning method and you have to show you can work with that union”, Jones told Japan’s Foreign Correspondents’ Club this month.
Jones, the former Australia and Japan head coach, was today appointed to the top role with England, only days after emerging as a surprise front-runner for the position. I might grab him for a coffee down there. If [former England captain] Steve [Bothwick] is one of those guys we need going forward then we will have that discussion. He isn’t afraid to upset the status quo or the establishment if he thinks they are getting in the way of the success of the team he is in charge of. I want to make sure that the staff that we’re all thinking the same way, that is the important thing.
Jones’ long-time association with Japan meant he knew exactly what needed to be done to get the team ready for a World Cup and the camps were not for the feint-hearted. I was happy with that.
“We are confident Eddie can build on the strong foundations already laid, with this talented group of players largely remaining together through to the 2019 Rugby World Cup in Japan and beyond”.
Equally unlikely is that the man who discovered George Smith at a rugby league trial and brought him into the ACT Brumbies side that won the 2001 Super Rugby title will play without a specialist “fetcher” at openside flanker. As far as I know there are only four English players playing overseas.
“We will be clear on what we want in the team, how we want to behave and how we want to play”.
Richie also denied that former England head coach Sir Clive Woodward had been approached to fulfil a director of rugby role.
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3 TOP-FLIGHT STRAIN The relationship between England and the Premiership clubs is rarely harmonious and what equilibrium there is will not have been helped by comments recently made by Jones in which he questioned the wisdom of players being contracted to clubs rather than the union.
