‘We don’t have any contact’: England will not benefit from Jones’ Springboks links

England will not be benefiting from the insider knowledge of their former Springbok assistant coach Felix Jones this weekend after it emerged that neither their players nor key staff members have been in contact with the Irishman, still supposedly employed remotely by the Rugby Football Union (RFU).

England’s senior assistant coach, Richard Wigglesworth said he had not spoken to Jones and the players also say they have received no input from him before Saturday’s big game against South Africa. Jones handed in his resignation as defence coach after the summer tour to Japan and New Zealand but has not yet been formally released from his RFU contract.

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Steve Borthwick said last month Jones, who has been replaced as defensive guru by Joe El-Abd, would be analysing and studying opponents from home but Wigglesworth and the centre Henry Slade both indicated they had seen little sign of it.

“I’ve not spoken to him,” said Wigglesworth, who previously worked closely with the former Ireland international. “I don’t know [if he has been delivering analysis packages]. I’m sure [his knowledge of South Africa] has been tapped into but their coaches have [also] changed since he was there. They’re playing a slightly different style.”

Slade, part of an England backline hoping to bounce back from Saturday’s 42-37 defeat to Australia, has heard nothing either. “We don’t have any contact with Felix,” he said. “I’m not sure if the coaches do or not. We’ve been working with Joe and our defensive leaders, trying to set the defence and the team up to defend as well as possible.”

England urgently need to tighten up their defence and El-Abd, still employed by Oyonnax, has so far had limited time to adapt the aggressive “blitz” system the team adopted under Jones. “Obviously things have not quite gone as well and when not everyone is on the same page – some people flying, some people not – it looks a bit ragged,” said Slade, one of the team’s primary defensive leaders. “The thing with the blitz is you have to fully commit, go all in, and be together. Then it becomes strong.”

England’s coaches and players, meanwhile, are unhappy with the recent official clampdown on “escort runners” who impede players chasing after high kicks. Wigglesworth believes it is already having major consequences.

“I think the game has changed in the last two weeks,” said the former England scrum-half. “I’m not sure it was intentional but it’s definitely changed it. They’re going to create a lot of contestable kicking, that’s for sure. How you structure your attack and your possession sources will slightly change. You take one thing away and you now see guys shoving and getting penalties. There are always unintended consequences of anything you try and do with good intentions.”

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There are even fears that the crackdown, designed to encourage less congestion around the ball catcher and more unstructured play, will have the opposite effect and deter coaches from picking diminutive full-backs who suddenly have less protection.

“I’m not sure it will have the desired effect of wanting clean contests,” continued Wigglesworth, whose side were frequently beaten in the aerial contest against the Wallabies by a soaring Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii. “A clean contest is two guys trying to catch a ball, not one guy who doesn’t have to catch it. Will it lead to more kicks? 100%. There is zero doubt it’s going to lead to more kicking. I thought we were in a good space before.”

The world champion Springboks just happen to be exactly the kind of team who could benefit from the crackdown, as Wigglesworth wryly acknowledged. “Kick execution is now a big part of the game. We’re playing a team at the weekend who are very good at that, so we’re going to have to handle that really well.”

Slade is not delighted by the change either, suggesting it would also lead to a more stop-start game. “I’m rarely at the back contesting these balls but it makes it a lot more of a contested game in the air. I understand they want to get rid of the escort but I feel like the objectives are conflicting.

“From where I’m sitting there are going to be way more scrums which I thought they were trying to get rid of? There are positives and negatives. It creates a lot more unstructured attack, but also probably more scrums.”