"Not f***king big enough" - 4 players Eddie Jones blacklisted and never spoke to again

The number 8 was deemed not big enough by the England boss, meaning no matter how well he performed for Bath it didn't make a difference to his chances of a call-up.

"I hadn’t been in the England environment for more than two years. I hadn’t heard from Eddie Jones for a long time," revealed Mercer to the Mail Online, who joined Montpellier due to his continues international exile.

"It would have been nice to have a conversation about where I stood. That helped push my decision to come out here and I took the decision that I won’t play for England.

"‘I took the decision that I won’t play at the next World Cup, which was massive for me. But I’ve still got time to develop."

In his first few weeks in the South of France, he has been entertained on speedboats, became engaged and has won two man-of-the-match awards.

Former England start Kyran Bracken was the first person to reveal why the Quins playmaker was mysteriously frozen out of Jones plans in 2018 despite being a regular up until that point.

“He (Care) made the mistake of speaking his mind to Eddie Jones and questioning how he wanted him to play when he was playing with an England ‘B’ team against Japan in the autumn of 2018,” said Bracken.

“Eddie’s response to that was ‘that’s not the attitude I want’ and he binned him from his plans.”

This story was later backed up by England and Harlequins teammate Mike Brown.

DID YOU KNOW? At age 11 he was invited to join the Academy at Sheffield Wednesday Football Club which meant giving up club rugby union for a fw years

Brown wrote in his column: ‘I’d had one of my best seasons for Quins (2018/19) with really good attacking stats (2019), but Eddie had pigeon-holed me as a defensive full-back. At the end of this meeting, he asked if I had anything I wanted to say.

“I challenged his comments that I was just a defensive full-back, saying I thought I had been adding value to the attack, with examples and stats from my season, before saying I would take away all of his points and that I would do everything I could to get into the World Cup squad.

“He did not like that I had contested what he said and went mad. He shouted: ‘Well you lost the f****** ball in contact on Saturday, didn’t you? That’s f****** not good enough. You’re not f****** doing everything you can.'”

Ultimately, Brown wouldn’t be picked for the Rugby World Cup with Jones saying that his clash with teammate Ben Te’o had nothing to do with his omission. He’s not been picked since.

DID YOU KNOW? He married long term partner, fashion designer Eliza Scarlett Woodcock, the daughter of former England international footballer Tony Woodcock in 2016

Jones wrote in his autobiography that the Sarries legend ‘could not match the pace and snarl of his long-term rival Mike Brown.’ 

However, according to Brown’s column for the Mail Online, Goode clashed with Jones over this opinion in a heated discussion which led to him being frozen out of the squad after 2016.

The fullback then never won a recall despite being awarded the 2019 European Player of the Year award.

DID YOU KNOW? He is the nephew of Jo Goode, who won an Olympic bronze in Badminton in Sydney.