RFU Release Statement On England Head Coach Eddie Jones

“You don’t become a bad coach or team overnight.”

The Rugby Football Union (RFU) will continue to back England head coach Eddie Jones despite their disappointing fifth place finish at this year’s Six Nations Championship.

It was England’s worst finish in over 30 years, with Saturday’s defeat to Ireland their third consecutive loss, and first at Twickenham under Eddie Jones.

A review of the results and the tournament overall took place on Wednesday morning, with RFU chief executive Steve Brown attending the initial meeting between Jones and his coaching staff.

As is customary after each tournament, Jones must present to the RFU board and also appear before the Professional Game Board, which represents the English game’s various stakeholders.

While the RFU are obviously disappointed with the results,  Brown insists Jones remains the right man to lead England into the 2019 World Cup.

“Eddie and his coaches have my confidence and the measure of how good they are and can be will be how they respond to these tough times,” Brown said.

“The results in the Six Nations were not what we wanted, not what we expected and there is no attempt by us to dress this up.

“We wanted to do significantly better and we didn’t. We’re disappointed with the decline, no question about that. Nobody would want to go from winning the Six Nations to fifth.

“We will learn from this and make sure it doesn’t happen again. No one is patting each other on the back, they’re looking for solutions to put us back to where we were before.

“We were motoring pretty well. We have hit a bit of a bump and now is the time to regroup, reassess and get back on track.

“It’s worth reflecting that Eddie has an 86 per cent win record with England. You don’t become a bad coach or team overnight. But we have to learn and have to improve.”