‘Ridiculous’: Lawes swats aside talk of Jones’s England job being on the line

Courtney Lawes has branded suggestions Eddie Jones’s job is under threat if England end another disappointing Six Nations campaign with defeat against France on Saturday as “ridiculous”.

England have lost their two trips to Paris under Jones and a third defeat against the grand-slam chasing French could condemn them to a second successive fifth-place finish in the championship. Jones survived the inquest into last year’s dismal campaign but a repeat performance will lead to another uncomfortable post-mortem at the Rugby Football Union, less than 18 months before the 2023 World Cup.

Related: Avoiding Paris pain would only paper cracks for Jones’s maddening England | Robert Kitson

Despite having grand designs on the title, England have managed victories over just Italy and Wales so far this championship and, excluding the game against the Azzurri, have scored only two tries. Lawes, however, has brushed off the criticism facing Jones and England, who head into the final weekend of the championship already out of the title race for the second year in a row.

He said: “The thing is everyone’s complaining nowadays. It doesn’t matter what you do, how good you’ve been or whatever, somebody’s going to find something to complain about. Somebody’s always going to say ‘this person should be doing this, shouldn’t be doing this, should be in the team or shouldn’t be’. At this point it’s so ridiculous that there’s no point in even looking. To be honest, we don’t use it as motivation, no, because there’s no point in even watching it.”

While the criticism of Jones is growing louder, he retains the public support of his players. This week Sam Simmonds issued a passionate defence of the head coach and Lawes was similarly glowing,