Why Bash Street kids are left at the gates

EDDIE Jones? What a bounder. Anyone who thinks he can waltz in from the colonies and criticise our private school system (motto: for the few, not the many) must be bad news. Next thing we know, he’ll be passing the port in the wrong direction.

England’s imported coach has well and truly stirred it with his suggestion that the fee-paying sector produces players who, to mix a metaphor, have had it on a plate and therefore don’t like it up ’em. Jones could have lost by 50 to Wales and attracted less criticism from the establishment.

Yet – here goes – he raises a pertinent point about schools rugby, even if it’s not precisely the point he thought he was raising.

The independent sector has always been an overly dominant force in the English game and there is little sign of a rebalancing. Quite the opposite.

When England won the World Cup in 2003, only a third of the starting side had attended fee-paying schools. Compare and contrast with the current national Under-18 squad, which has seven state-educated players out of 26. And one of those is from a selective grammar in Kent.

The Premiership academies have been a leveller, but only for those who find their way into them. Generally speaking, this is far easier for youngsters from private schools, with their top-of-the-range facilities and elite coaches.

Take Bristol, one of the more rugby-driven cities in the country. At Clifton College, the super-sharp Matt Salter (a former Bristol captain) and Danny Grewcock (a Lions Test lock) run the show. Colston’s has just appointed the 80-cap Ireland full-back Girvan Dempsey as top dog. Queen Elizabeth’s Hospital has the England Saxons outsidehalf Adrian Jarvis in place.

There are no equivalents at the Bash Street Comprehensive where most kids go, so we must draw the following conclusion. If football, run through clubs rather than schools, is a true meritocracy, rugby union is something very different.