RFU backs Eddie Jones for World Cup but England must ‘improve a lot’

Eddie Jones has been backed to lead England at next year’s World Cup after the Rugby Football Union insisted: “Eddie is the guy to take us there.”

The Australian has a contract until the end of the 2023 tournament in France and eased mounting pressure on his position by masterminding this month’s 2-1 tour victory over his native country.

The RFU chief executive, Bill Sweeney, said Jones’s impressive record against major southern hemisphere nations – 20 wins from 25 – was central to the national governing body keeping faith. He also conceded that evolving England require improvement in a number of areas in order to be competitive during Test rugby’s showpiece competition.

“We’d expect him to go through to ‘23,” Sweeney said of Jones. “It is tough at the highest level of sport. There is so much scrutiny and reasonable scrutiny. I think it is important sometimes not to over-react but it is also equally important not to under-react.

“We don’t just have a review after every major tournament, we have an ongoing review process. We will clearly be doing that with Eddie and the coaches when they come back, they are due back at the end of the month.

“We have been looking for signs of ‘Are we on track?’, ‘Do we still believe in the direction we’re going in?’ and ‘Do we have the confidence [in Jones]?’ and we’ve said we do.

“We are not blind to some of the areas that need to be addressed. We’ve got to improve a lot to be competitive.

“The challenge for us is to improve at the rate we think is good enough to be fully competitive in 2023. And we do believe Eddie is the guy to take us there.”

Jones guided England to the final of the 2019 World Cup in Japan – where they were beaten by South Africa – but his position has since come under