By dint of pressing them in all directions, constantly wringing them out, Eddie Jones ended up no longer finding juice under the white jerseys of the XV de la Rose. While the English ship is pitching dangerously and scraping the seabed more often than it should, the Australian coach, who had been received by his federation on Monday and had failed to defend his starving record in 2022, was disembarked this Tuesday, before the end of his contract. Much sooner than he would have liked. The 62-year-old former history and geography teacher will therefore not see the World Cup in France (September 8 – October 28, 2023) when the main objective of his coaching life was to lead a selection to the supreme title. He almost did, first with the XV of Australia which he coached from 2001 to 2005, failing in the final of the 2003 World Cup in Sydney, capped by England and sounded by a drop from Jonny Wilkinson in extra time (20-17).
Sixteen years later, at the head of these same Englishmen whom he joined after the fiasco of their World Cup in 2015 and to whom he offered three Six Nations Tournaments (2016, 2017, 2020) including a Grand Slam (2016), he swept the All Blacks, favorites of the competition, during a memorable semi-final (19-7) in Yokohama in Japan, the country he had led during the 2015 World Cup to a resounding feat against South Africa ( 34-32). Alas, the XV of the Rose flakes in the final, pushed down by much more confident Springboks (32-12).
Australia, Japan, England… His three nations, his three selections which he will sometimes have hoisted very high but which he will also have been fairly tested by his methods of a rigor bordering on the absolute, will never have watered down his character as a iron. Tired of heavy workloads and ever-increasing demands, the British players eventually went into their shells. Fifth in the 2021 Six Nations Tournament, third last season beaten by Scotland, Ireland and France, the English hit rock bottom this fall, defeated for the first time in their history at Twickenham by Argentina (30 -29), snatching a particularly happy draw against poor New Zealanders (25-25) before sinking in front of the South Africans (27-13). The starving volume of play and the lack of punch of his troop got the better of the technician “who never sleeps”, the son of an Australian soldier and an American-Japanese.
Nine months before the World Cup in France (September 8 – October 28, 2023), this change of course for the England XV may be too late, but the successor to Eddie Jones could benefit from the famous shock so much sought after in these circumstances. Steve Borthwick, his former assistant in the XV de la Rose, current manager of the Leicester Tigers, approached for the position, will not start from a blank page if he is chosen.
