It was with not inconsiderable disappointment that news came through on Friday afternoon that illness had laid Eddie Jones low and the Japan head coach would be unable to conduct a planned press conference. As is often the case with the truculent Australian, it has been impossible to escape his name in the build-up to this weekend’s clash between his employers new and old; talk of the Eddie era seeming to bounce out of the whispering walls and ornate corners of the Pennyhill Park training base he used to patrol.
Indeed, after his enforced withdrawal, it feels like the only person yet to pass comment on Jones’s eccentricities and efficacy is the man himself – a relatively rarity for someone who takes great pleasure in nailing the narrative. There was a degree of dodging from the Japan Rugby Football Union this week, with a virtual press conference all that was offered with their head coach even before his illness. The music will be faced on Sunday for certain: “He’ll be [at Twickenham] with bells on,” assistant Neal Hatley promised.
If it was inevitable that the former England coach would be a topic of discussion as he takes on his former side at Twickenham for the first time since his sacking, his centrality as an issue was only heightened by a less-than-flattering portrayal in Danny Care’s recently-published autobiography. Care’s description of a despotic and dictatorial coach did not necessarily contain much information that hadn’t been rumoured or ruminated on privately before, but the detail of an environment seemingly endured rather than enjoyed was still striking.
Questions remain over how the Rugby Football Union let such a culture persist if Care’s comments are to be taken as true. While plenty of other players have given testimony on how Jones’s approach managed to get the best out of them, some clearly were made to feel rotten. It makes his legacy within the England environment peculiar, some of the current crop owing their careers to early opportunities given to them; others rather glad that a figure they could never get on the right side of was moved on.
“He was a coach that was always trying to evolve the game,” was how George Furbank, who returns to the England side on Sunday, put it. The Northampton full-back made his debut under Jones in 2020 but was soon ushered out of the side and challenged to improve and come again, as he has so impressively this year.
“He would try and bring new ideas to rugby, particularly in attack. I quite enjoyed that side of things, even though they sometimes didn’t work. He’s one of the most creative coaches I’ve worked under.
“He’s the person who gave me my England debut ultimately so I am incredibly grateful for that opportunity. When I first came in, he looked after me really well and gave me the confidence to go and do what I had been doing, even though I hadn’t played much for Saints at that point. In my run out of the team, I was in constant contact and knew the areas I needed to improve on to get in that squad. He was good to me and I’ll forever be grateful for that first cap.”
The paradoxical part of the Eddie story is that he remains England’s most successful coach since Clive Woodward by a distance. At a time where division and disputes were seemingly part and parcel, he managed to instil a ruthlessness in a team that brought rewards for long periods of his tenure.
A man of mischief will relish the opportunity to return to Twickenham at this juncture. The hosts are without a win in five and condemned even with victory on Sunday to a losing year. Japan, armed with a makeshift fly half and missing their best forward in Warner Dearns due to suspension, will be expected to lose heavily but this is a shot to nothing. Steve Borthwick have described their visitors as a side that play the game differently and England have had their noses bloodied by them before – the first hour of the World Cup clash last year was a wretched watch, while the infamous 2018 meeting at Twickenham saw Jones forced to turn to Owen Farrell at half-time with Japan threatening one of the great shocks of a side formed mostly of fringe figures.
There is no such experimentation from Borthwick this week. If this is in part recognition of Japan’s threat, it is also a reflection of where a side losing and learning is at. In an ideal world, a win or two would have been banked to allow the coaching staff to assess a few new combinations or blood some fresh faces; with a zero from three record, a full-strength starting side is a virtual necessity. Borthwick’s continuing desire for cohesion and continuity is a factor, too.
The wins have not come but the belief in England camp is that they have grown significantly across a gruelling period. Yet there are clearly kinks to work out. A defensive system upheaved by Felix Jones’s departure is certainly in need of refinement, while the final quarter collapses are a festering sore.
“This team is developing into being a good team,” Borthwick said on Friday. “But we haven’t been able to deliver the final blow, the final punch, to get the wins against these really good teams. Test-match players have got to be able to perform at the very highest level under the highest scrutiny, under the highest pressure.
“I see a really determined group here, led by Jamie George, that believe in the path we are on, believe in how we’re trying to play – and I see ambitious players who want the ball. And I’m backing them to do it. Yes, we’ve had some setbacks; yes, we’ve had some results not go our way, but I believe that the future of this team will be really positive.”
Health permitting, Borthwick and Jones were planning for a catch-up on match eve. Aspects of the Australian’s coaching style have shaped his former first lieutenant as he has gone about on his own journey; the pair are immensely dedicated, detailed and data-driven individuals – even if their public personas could hardly be more contrasting,
One imagines that Jones will have some words of support having experienced some of the same scrutiny his successor is now under but on Sunday it will be strictly business. And having survived the Eddie experience as an assistant, Borthwick knows to expect the unexpected.
“We know what a great coach he is, what a mind he has, what a great tactician he is,” the England head coach cautioned. “He’s incredibly competitive and he’s in the early stage of developing a Japan team that I’m sure will present different challenges to us.”
