Rugby Union: Eddie Jones has a year to get England firing again – he might need some help

There have been better times to be an Australian rugby coach working in the UK. Leicester’s decision to sack Matt O’Connor after just one game of the season is the latest dent to antipodean pride, leaving Eddie Jones as the last prominent wizard from Oz still in charge in England. Like so many boomerangs the rest are heading back from whence they came.

Every nationality, to be fair, tends to find coaching in the northern hemisphere trickier than expected. Partly it is the length of the season, partly the tribal nature of the rugby and the dizzying amount of plates that require constant spinning. The dominant godfathers of coaching in these islands have been either homegrown or, in the case of Joe Schmidt, Warren Gatland and Pat Lam, wily Kiwis who have spent years in these parts and know the landscape inside out.

So whither Jones? Whether he ends up gatecrashing this exalted category now rests squarely upon what unfolds between now and this same week next year when England will be playing their final warm-up fixture in Newcastle and packing their bags for Japan. Call it Jones’s year of living dangerously. In a perfect world his England squad will emerge from the spot of turbulence they have latterly endured and soar again at the World Cup. There is a gloomier alternative scenario: five defeats in their last six Tests are followed by a mediocre autumn and another bottom-half finish in the Six Nations, at which point any notions of glory in Japan can be realistically shelved.

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Let us consider the sunnier option first because there is a precedent. Just over a month before the 2007 World Cup, South Africa were staring anxiously over a precipice. The Boks had just finished bottom of the old Tri-Nations table and been pummelled 33-6 by the All Blacks in Christchurch. A clearly perturbed SA Rugby decided to draft in a fresh pair of eyes in a bid to boost morale prior to the national team heading for France and hired a certain E Jones Esq as a technical advisor.

As 11th-hour gambits go it worked out spectacularly. The Springboks won their two warm-up matches 105-13 and 27-3, thrashed England 36-0 in the pool stages and went on to lift the Webb Ellis Cup in Paris. All that stuff about World Cup teams needing to be perfectly tuned 12 months out from the event is not always compulsory.

Jones, the proven alchemist, knows this from experience. If England can pitch up at Twickenham this autumn, smash South Africa, Japan and Australia and give a decent account of themselves against a fine All Black side, much of their recent uncertainty will dissolve. A fit Billy Vunipola, a revitalised Maro Itoje, a dominant Owen Farrell and, maybe, an inspired Chris Ashton and Danny Cipriani could transform perceptions very swiftly.

For this particular rosy vision to come true, however, Jones badly needs fresh impetus now. The increasing stream of assistant coaches, backroom specialists and support staff parting company with the RFU would concern any responsible organisation. Even if it is simply because they cannot cope with Jones’s exacting standards the collective effect is to sap the morale of those friends and colleagues still in situ.

Sooner rather than later the RFU is expected to announce it is re-hiring the former All Black head coach John Mitchell, a member of Clive Woodward’s brains trust 20 years ago. Soft, soothing words of honey have not traditionally been Mitchell’s modus operandi either, although the tough former Waikato forward does boast an extensive seen-it-all CV spanning many continents. But will he fit snugly alongside Steve Borthwick and Neal Hatley, England’s existing assistants? How will the players respond, potentially, to even more stick and even less carrot?

And what about Scott Wisemantel, the temporary Aussie consultant who supervised England’s attack in South Africa in the summer? Surely, by this stage of a World Cup build-up, England’s players need someone whom they know for sure will be there for the duration? Sure, Jones made an instant difference in 2007 but South Africa were desperate by then. Jones and Jake White also had the estimable John Smit, Victor Matfield, Fourie du Preez, Bryan Habana et al to provide stability and calm when it really mattered.

The England set-up, by contrast, has started to feel as reassuringly secure as a two-legged stool. Many of Jones’s first choices have been playing for under-achieving domestic sides at Leicester, Bath, Northampton and Harlequins. Team selection is in a state of flux, one of Jones’s players recently aggravated a serious leg injury during a commercial photo shoot and the coach’s relationship with the media has cooled. As with José Mourinho at Manchester United, the spats are more fun when his team are winning.

The good news for Jones is that, unlike his jettisoned compatriot O’Connor, defeat in his side’s opening fixture this autumn will not, by itself, earn him the sack. There are increasing mutterings, even so, that the RFU is far less in thrall to its highly-paid guru than it used to be. Ironically for someone who uses the word ‘mate’ so regularly, Jones could do with cultivating a few more of them.

Crowded house

Here are a couple of stats for you. Twenty years ago this month the average crowd for a Premiership rugby match was 5,500. On the second weekend of the 1998-99 season, three of the six top tier fixtures attracted an aggregate of less than 6,500 spectators between them. Contrast that with last season’s average gate of almost 15,000 and the record 26,079 who turned up at Ashton Gate last Friday night to watch Bristol face Bath. Sometimes, amid all the coach sackings and player welfare concerns, it is easy to forget – relatively speaking - how far the domestic game has come.

And finally …

The Tyrrells Premier 15s women’s club season kicks off this weekend, with England also playing three autumn internationals against the United States, Canada and Ireland in November. Amid the ongoing debate about the best way forward for women’s rugby and how to popularise it sufficiently to justify full across-the-board professionalism, the first part of the solution is simple. If you are a rugby fan who has never attended a live high-level women’s game go and take a look this season. The chances are you will be entertained and impressed.