England are a shambles of leadership - what exactly does Eddie Jones have to do to be sacked?
Article in today's Telegraph.
What exactly would it take for Eddie Jones to be sacked? Perhaps the England coach would need to run on in the final moments and ankle tap Marcus Smith just as the outside half was in motion for the game’s winning try?
Actually scrap that, as Jones seemed actively to work against his side in those last 17 minutes at Murrayfield. A series of shambolic decisions that can all be too easily be traced back to the very top contrived to allow gallant Scotland to grab home hero status. And not a murmur of a P45 from HQ.
Smith kicked the penalty in the 63rd minute to take the visitors seven points ahead and in the ensuing seconds was hauled off for George Ford in a move so premeditated you could almost hear the buzz of the alarm on Jones’s wristwatch.
No matter that Smith had scored all 17 points, no matter that this 22-year-old had wrested all the momentum for his side - it said on the flowchart that Ford was to play the last quarter and Eddie’s flowcharts never lie.
Over to Ford, the playmaker who was given such confidence in the build-up by Jones, who initially left him out of this 36-man squad, having overlooked him for a 45-man squad in the autumn.
Poor Ford, brilliant for Leicester in this time, must not have known if he was coming and going. In truth, Jones did not have a clue either. As it was, Ford was gone and then recalled and suddenly expected to go from cruelly forgotten to cool finisher. World-class management, right there.
If only that were the sole howler. The Jamie George error was way beyond embarrassing and made one wonder what the coaching staff do with all those hours at Pennyhill Park? Not go through simple scenarios, it appears.
The hooker gets a yellow, you bring another on straight away. You do not oh so cleverly wait for the next scrum, when the rules state a dedicated No 2 has to be in action. Because if the next set-piece is a lineout and the hooker is not ready, you have the almost surreal sight of Joe Marler throwing in.
Followed by the predictable outcome of the ball not travelling the requisite five metres and the whistle being blown. A play or two later and Finn Russell was sizing up the match-winning penalty. Say it ain’t so, Joe.
This is basic stuff. There was more to follow. England had the chance to go for a draw, but an increasingly befuddled Tom Curry elected to go for the corner. Except left-footer Henry Slade was not thrown the ball, as he always is for Exeter on that side of the pitch, but Ford and he did not make much more ground than Marler.
It was a tactical failure for which Curry, the under-prepared captain, should not be blamed but Jones, the supposed svengali. The final throes were an abomination, with the England backline in complete confusion. No direction. Oh, Calcutta.
So this is the third campaign in a row England have lost their opening game in the Six Nations - for the first time in 46 years. Since his honeymoon Grand Slam in 2016 and then his title defence the next year, Jones has overseen 11 wins in their last 21 Championship matches. That is a desperate return for a country of those resources. In this same period, only Italy have a worse ratio. That is not a blip.
The Six Nations is the bread and butter but his disciples point to the caviar, to that inspirational triumph over New Zealand in the semi-final of the 2019 World Cup when all the roses aligned. That was the zenith, the heights to which Jones and his men can ascend. But it was also three years ago and there has been something of an unravelling since.
Off the pitch, there have been stories of discord in the ranks, of utter joylessness and, bizarrely, of contracts with overseas clubs. That is just Eddie, they say. He is a perfectionist with a quick gob and ridiculously high standards.
Well, maybe, but unless you are one of those who fail to see that a nation with such a huge playing base should never truly be held to ransom by the injury list, you must surely recognise that Saturday’s denouement was a shambles of leadership. And that Eddie’s England are not nearly where they should be with a World Cup next year.
Admittedly the article is written by James Corrigan who is their Golf Correspondent, but he makes his points.
Always a Wasp
