The five defeats that proved costly for Eddie Jones

By Nick Powell, Online Editor

Eddie Jones seven-year stint as England coach came to an end on Tuesday morning as he was “dismissed” by England following a post-Autumn Nations Series review.

But after such stellar years in 2016, 2017 and 2020 – in which he won the Six Nations in each year – and reaching a Rugby World Cup Final in 2019, where did things start to go wrong for the Australian?

Here, The Rugby Paper Online looks at the five games that would come to define a difficult final two years for Jones, which ultimately contributed heavily to his downfall.

England 6-11 Scotland, February 2021 (Six Nations)

At an empty, rainy Twickenham, Scotland claimed a first win against the Auld Enemy on English soil since 1983, in a shattering dismantling of the kick-dominated gameplan that had served the hosts so well in 2020.

Coupled with poor discipline – a theme that will be seen across these five games – and the lack of any support from the crowd, it was a perfect storm that delivered Scotland the chance to re-write history, which they duly took.

The embarrassing nature of the defeat, coupled with England’s toothless attack, all-but undid any of the favour Jones had accumulated during 2020.

He took responsibility, saying: “I didn’t prepare the team well enough. We just had one of those days. We don’t have many, but we had a bad day today.”

Ireland 32-18 England, March 2021 (Six Nations)

England went on to lose to Wales in the same campaign 40-24, but contested decisions for both of Wales’ first half tries in that defeat, and home wins either side that to Italy and tournament favourites France meant that Jones still had the chance to win back approval for his job over the course of the Championship, as his troops headed to Dublin.

Victory would have meant Jones avoided becoming the first England coach in 47 years to have finished fifth in the Six Nations twice, and the visitors still had a slim chance of finishing as high as second had results gone their way.

But from the opening moments of this encounter England’s ill-discipline was once again there to rear its ugly head, as they put in an abject first half display to trail 20-6 at the break.

A 12-12 second half didn’t reflect just how dominant Ireland continued to be, with England eventually snatching a late consolation against 13 men, and Jones’ comments that: “We finished the tournament better than we started” did little to impress the fans.

In less than two months, Jones had gone from having one of the safest jobs in World Rugby to being under intense pressure.

Scotland 20-17 England, February 2022 (Six Nations)

Two summer internationals allowed Jones to embed new players as England smashed the USA and Canada, before an Autumn which had seen another thumping against Tonga, a solid dismantling of Australia and a thrilling win against world champions South Africa.

Of the five defeats listed, this was undoubtedly the strongest performance of a bad bunch, but there was a feeling amongst many – particularly the writers of The Rugby Paper – that Jones’ management of the game had cost England victory.

As Brendan Gallagher put it “England had turned a corner on the hour and subdued a lively Scots team with a strong performance in the third quarter to take a 17-10 lead” but “really bad calls by Eddie Jones who has long been obsessed by this ‘finishers’ nonsense” gave Scotland a route back into the game, and they won 20-17 after being awarded a penalty try as one of those ‘finishers’ – Luke Cowan-Dickie – deliberately pushed the ball out of play.

When Jones comes to reflect on where it all went wrong for him this year, this game will stick out like a sore thumb.

England 29-30 Argentina, November 2022 (Autumn Nations Series)

In terms of England’s standing in the final table for the 2022 Six Nations, the Scotland defeat ultimately didn’t prove costly, but two wins from five was still not a good return in the eyes of many given the players England had.

After losing his first game in an Australia tour, Jones had turned it around with consecutive wins to win a series Down Under for the second time, but there was still an expectation of further improvement for this year’s Autumn Nations Series.

Instead, England suffered their first home defeat to Argentina since 2006, with another flat and ill-discipline display.

Again, it was far from England’s worst performance under Jones, but the frustration amongst fans was palpable, and there was no evidence of any progression with the World Cup now less than 12 months away.

Jones needed his troops to nail the rest of the Autumn, and with a rejuvenated performance against Japan and superb comeback to draw against New Zealand, they almost did.

But the final game would prove to be the final straw.

England 13-27 South Africa, November 2022 (Autumn Nations Series)

Both sides came into this game at the end of long and difficult years, but England seemed to have the upper hand having shown their class in victory against Japan and provided Twickenham with so much to cheer about in the last ten minutes of their draw against New Zealand.

Fast forward a week and the English crowd were booing at full-time, as their players trudged off the field having been thoroughly outplayed by a South Africa side who came into the game with two defeats from three games.

Parallels with England’s defeat by the same opponent in a World Cup final three years were inevitably drawn, and muddled selection combined with no evident attacking direction made it hard to see any progress from that game.

While the margin was narrower than the 32-12 scoreline in the final, it was arguably worse in context.

Rather than South Africa grabbing late tries to make the scoreboard look somewhat harsh, it was England who had got a late consolation score which had only come after several attacks had fallen apart.

Furthermore it had come from a breakaway and quick-tapped penalty, which seemingly had nothing to do with Jones’ coaching.

In the end, it proved to be last time Jones would be able to take responsibility for a defeat, and the RFU acted within 10 days to remove him from his post.

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