Representatives from various countries
2022.12.06
［ Satoshi Takehana ］
Eddie Jones, who has been England manager since November 2015, was sacked less than a year before the Rugby World Cup. The English Rugby Union (RFU) made the official announcement on 6 December.
A successor will be announced in the near future.
England have won just one of their last four matches of the Autumn Nations Series against Japan (52-13). They managed to draw with New Zealand in a pre-match offensive (25-25), but were defeated by South Africa (13-27) and even Argentina (29-30).
Jones even called this autumn’s test match a ‘Mini World Cup’, with Argentina, Japan, New Zealand and South Africa in that order. After defeating Argentina and Japan in the same group in the group stage of next year’s World Cup, they planned to face New Zealand and South Africa, who would most likely meet in the final, and finish this fall with an undefeated 4 game win .
This summer’s Australian expedition won with 2 wins and 1 loss, but in the Six Nations (6-nation European competition) they finished in 3rd place with 2 wins and 3 losses. England’s record as of 2022 is W5, L6 and D1. This record has been a “catastrophe” since 2008, when it became a record slump of 4 wins and 7 losses. The English Rugby Union, which is said to have the biggest budget in the world and is effectively run like a major British company. If it doesn’t deliver, it will make a ruthless decision, similar to that of a British company, to seek results through bold restructuring.
Jones, considered the most expensive manager in the national team, has an annual income of £750,000 (about 125 million yen). With the contract running until the end of the 2023 World Cup, there should have been a penalty for early termination, but the association had to be determined enough to replace the director even at the cost.
Jones is known for his forthrightness, and during pre-game press conferences he calls opposing team players and coaches into psychological warfare.
Including the Grand Slam in 2016, the first year of his appointment, he won the Six Nations title three times in seven years and finished as runners-up in the 2019 World Cup. At the age of 62, he is confident he still has a long way to go as a rugby manager and could make it to the World Cup as manager of another country’s national team. He doesn’t yet know which country he will be in, or if this will be his last job as national coach.
