Former coach Eddie Jones has pointed the finger at the Rugby Football Union for England’s current crisis. England’s troubled World Cup preparations hit a new low when they lost to Fiji last weekend, which was the fifth defeat in their last six matches.
They have subsequently slipped to their lowest ranking in 20 years and expectations of a promising campaign in France over the next two months are low.
It is a rapid decline from the last World Cup in 2019, where Jones took them to the final. And he believes while current coach Steve Borthwick is coming under pressure, the governing body is responsible for failing to produce the next generation of talent. “It’s a difficult situation, like you’ve got an ageing team,” Jones, who left his position with the RFU in 2022 and will lead his home country Australia into the tournament, told BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme. “Anyone who knows anything about sport can see that and then you’ve got new players coming in.
Some of them have come through and done really well, like a Freddy Stewart, others are still finding their feet, like a Marcus Smith. “You look at the results of England over the last five years but they’re not producing quality players. “And so everyone looks at the head coach and let’s blame the head coach.