‘No emotional attachment’: Eddie Jones has moved on from time with England

Eddie Jones has fallen out of love with England, insisting he has no emotional connection to the side he coached for seven years before his sacking last December.

Jones will be back in the Twickenham coaching box on Sunday for the first time since the Rugby Football Union fired him when he takes charge of the Barbarians against a World XV. Though he is relishing the return, Jones said he was unfazed about the sort of reception he will receive from the Twickenham crowd.

Steve Borthwick’s appointment brought little improvement to England during another disappointing Six Nations campaign and though Jones said he watched all of the tournament’s matches, he also initially said: “I don’t watch England.”

“I’ve been lucky enough to coach internationally, and when you go to a team I love the team I’m coaching, but then when I move then I don’t have any regrets, any bad feelings,” Jones said. “I want that team to do OK, but there’s no emotional attachment to that team any more.

“They’re just one of the six teams in the Six Nations - I watch them, I think about them like all the teams how I would coach them if I had that team, and then if we come up against them I’ve already got something in my head.”

After his sacking - and shortly after he had been snapped up by Australia - Jones said he would not speak to his former employers should England face the Wallabies at this year’s World Cup. Asked about the prospect of running into the union’s chief executive, Bill Sweeney, on Sunday, however, Jones said: “I don’t hold any grudges against anyone. I have moved on. If they are not moved on that’s their problem, not my problem.

“I never worry about things I can’t control. I don’t control [the sort of reception I’ll get], so it’s no use