Rugby: Eddie Jones admits he is ‘short of leaders’ in his England squad after Six Nations misery

After admitting that some players may struggle to represent England again following this year’s dismal showing in the Six Nations, Eddie Jones admitted he is short of leaders in the squad and needs “more guys like Owen Farrell”.

The post-mortem from England’s worst Six Nations campaign in 31 years was well and truly underway even before their fifth-place finish was confirmed in Cardiff as France earned a losing bonus point against Wales, with Jones discussing future selection plans, current problems that will need fixing and the possibility of leaving his British and Irish Lions players at home for this summer’s tour of South Africa.

In the minutes after Saturday’s 24-15 defeat by Ireland, Jones spoke to players about the ill-discipline that cost them a shot at victory and any chance of preventing Ireland’s Grand Slam, but he also addressed the worrying lack of leadership among the players that he addressed as early as last year.

“Things like leadership density of the team and having more leaders,” Jones said. “We need more guys like Owen Farrell and to do that you need more time to develop. And when you are developing people who aren't Owen Farrell and you are asking them to do other things, sometimes the weight of those things affects their performance in a negative way.

“So they seem less energetic, but in fact they are just trying to cope with the new responsibilities.

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“You never know, some people are born leaders and others aren’t. The ones who aren’t take a bit of time. Some guys spurt up, and some take a little longer. It’s like being in the classroom, some kids get their maths tables easily, some don’t. You just have to wait and see. That’s a big area for us guys to get right and it does take time.”

That Jones referenced Farrell instead of his captain, Dylan Hartley, was slightly peculiar given that the latter is largely included in the squad for his leadership skills, keeping the likes of Jamie George and Luke Cowan-Dickie out of the side despite their more impressive form in the Premiership. Jones has said previously that Hartley, who on Saturday received his 92nd Test cap, will remain captain as long as he justifies his place in the squad, and while the Australian did admit after the match that some players may have played their last game for England, he did not elaborate on whether that will spread to his captain.

Hartley missed last weekend’s defeat in France through injury, with Farrell taking on the captaincy, and when Jones attempted to trigger a response from his squad after back-to-back defeats – ultimately to no avail – he moved Farrell to fly-half where the Saracens man could have a bigger impact on the match.

Given the lack of leadership, it would be a surprise to see Hartley axed at this stage of the World Cup cycle, with Jones starting to run out of time before he locks down his squad plans for the tournament in Japan next year. The Northampton Saints hooker though does not share Jones’ concerns and believes that he has a lot of leaders on the pitch around him, even if that hasn’t translated into results over the last seven weeks.

“I think we've got great leaders in the squad but you can always improve it,” Hartley said. “You can create scenarios in training but you can't create three losses in a row and how you respond. We're learning a lot about each other. We're going to use this as an exercise to learn from and improve.”

One issue is that while Jones would like the players to take on the responsibility for identifying why England’s form has deserted them at the business end of the Six Nations, history has taught him that that can be problematic to achieve – and leave the players in a state of confusion and bemusement as to understand why things aren’t going their way.

“I don’t think you ever understand,” Jones added. “I’ve coached over 100 Tests and you have these moments. Everything is going well, then you lose a game, you lose a little bit of confidence and you start losing those 50-50 decisions. You get some injuries and then it just becomes a bit of a cycle.

“You just need a break. Sometimes you break it with a bit of luck, sometimes you break it through individual players, sometimes you break it because the opposition aren’t as good on the day. You just have to keep at it, wait for the opportunity and make sure people stick together. You have to keep believing in the process and if you do that, you get out of it.”

Such is England’s luck at the moment that Jones asked for the dead ball areas to be lengthened at Twickenham, only for Jacob Stockdale to utilise the extra space and touch the ball down for Ireland’s third try before half-time. The first score from Garry Ringrose could easily have been chalked off for a Rob Kearney knock-on as he competed with Anthony Watson for a high ball, but even though the matter was referred to the television match official [TMO] Ben Skeen, it was not picked up. Without those two tries, Saturday’s match takes a very different complexion – would Ireland have still claimed the Grand Slam? Probably not.

“Sometimes the game loves you and sometimes it doesn’t,” said Jones. “The ball bounces your way or the ball doesn’t bounce your way and that’s the game; you’ve got to be able to ride through it. When you get the good parts of it, you take it and you take the wins, but you know the other part of it is always going to come.”