Sir Clive Woodward’s latest column for the Mail Online, and he’s savagely gone in on Eddie Jones and the rest of the people at the RFU more than ever before.
The hosts were beaten 27-13 at Twickenham as the world champion Springboks dominated the set-piece from start to finish.
Head coach Jones apologised for the performance but said his players were still heading in the right direction, 10 months out from the World Cup.
That is something that World Cup-winning coach Woodward doesn’t agree with.
Not good enough:
Woodward wrote: “Losing to a second-string Springbok outfit came just days after the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport slammed the leading figures in English rugby for the way they run the sport.
“When are the leading figures at the RFU going to wake up and realise English rugby is in trouble? Everything is not OK. Eddie Jones will be allowed to carry on as he likes yet again.
“I was lost for words watching the South Africa game. It was that bad.
“It was one of the most depressing games I’ve seen at HQ.
Worst year since 2008:
He added: “Five wins from 12 games in 2022 isn’t good enough. It doesn’t reflect the talent that is within the English game. This has been England’s worst year since 2008.
“England are miles off the pace going into 2023 and a World Cup year. The Six Nations is next but God help England in that tournament. That is going to be an incredibly difficult competition.”
Jones sadly safe:
“Jones won’t get sacked. There is no point having another review unless Sweeney and the RFU have the backbone to name those who undertake it.
“That hasn’t happened in the past which makes the fact it takes place irrelevant. My hunch is that if Sweeney named those who were part of previous reviews then he would lose his job because I’m sure they would be people who either have a conflict of interest or aren’t qualified to analyse Jones’ position at the RFU.
You can read Sir Clive Woodward’s full column for the Mail Online by clicking here.
England’s squad ranked from best to worst:
What we’ve done is taken every England players ‘rating’ from each game this month and averaged their score with powerhouse Joe Cokanasiga coming out on top.
1. Joe Cokanasiga – 7
- Argentina: 7
- Japan: 7
- New Zealand: N/A
- South Africa: N/A
2. Maro Itoje – 6.87
- Argentina: 6
- Japan: 7.5
- New Zealand: 7
- South Africa: 7
3. Guy Porter – 6.75
- Argentina: N/A
- Japan: 8.5
- New Zealand: 5
- South Africa: N/A
4. Ellis Genge – 6.37
- Argentina: 7
- Japan: 8.5
- New Zealand: 5
- South Africa: 5
5=. Sam Simmonds – 6.25
- Argentina: 5
- Japan: 8
- New Zealand: 7
- South Africa: 5
5=. Freddie Steward – 6.25
- Argentina: 6
- Japan: 9
- New Zealand: 6
- South Africa: 4
