SIR CLIVE WOODWARD: Eddie Jones must be held to account after errors

Let me paint a hypothetical scenario for you. Harlequins are playing Gloucester at a fired-up Kingsholm and after a very physical first hour are beginning to translate their glut of possession and territorial advantage into points.

Marcus Smith has just stolen in for a beautifully taken individual try to silence the crowd and to make it 17 points personally in the game, the forwards are on top and Quins look good to add to their 17-10 lead.

And then at that precise moment, Quins inexplicably take Smith off along with a raft of other players who had been going really well. Quins then implode and lose a game they should have won.

Can you imagine what the Monday morning debrief would be like down at their training centre? 

Not only would coaches Tabai Matson and Nick Evans be required to explain themselves to the top brass but all their senior players would be demanding an explanation.

It’s a hypothetical question because Quins would never take their talisman Smith off in such a situation. So why did Eddie Jones? Will there be a no-holds-barred inquest at Pennyhill Park this morning? I suspect not.

There is nobody at Twickenham qualified to hold Eddie Jones to account in the rugby sense, he clearly has them all in his pocket. He can’t be questioned, which is a massive weakness.

When he made a mess of the Six Nations last year the RFU apparently held a cosy little inquest with a collection of ‘rugby experts’, which was in itself an acknowledgement there was no one at Twickenham willing to question Jones.

The report concluded England needed to get a ref involved at training to stem the flow of penalties and more involvement from sports psychologists might be beneficial!

We weren’t allowed to know the identities of these