The England coach is fascinated by the way football teams use analytics but can raw data really give him the whole picture?Eddie Jones did not get where he is today by idly sitting around gazing at his navel. Perhaps the most telling line in his autobiography is the one where he outlines the basic trait every good coach needs to possess. ‘Curiosity is the heart of invention,’ he writes. ‘Whether you are talking to Pep Guardiola, Alex Ferguson or the person sitting next to you on the plane, you can always learn something.’ Related: World Rugby criticised by dozens of academics for trans women ban Continue reading...
The unprecedented amount of rugby set to be played in the next 12 months is going to take a huge physical toll on playersThe fixtures for the Premiership’s restart give better clarity to the shape of the rugby calendar for the foreseeable future. We may not know who England will be playing in the autumn yet - and there is always the threat of a Covid-19 spike - but a second wave notwithstanding, the next year will bring a glut of top-level rugby.Restarting in mid-August will mean almost exactly 12 months of non-stop rugby. Great for fans, clubs and unions who have been so badly hit financially. Good for the sponsors, all kinds of stakeholders and for the players, who...
The Rugby Football Union says respect is a core value – so why the silence over Eddie Jones’s broadside aimed at Ben O’Keeffe?When Peter Wheeler, then the chief executive of Leicester, used a newspaper column to criticise the referee Steve Lander for some of his decisions in the match against Bristol in 2002, he was summoned to appear before a Rugby Football Union disciplinary panel and, after being found guilty of bringing the game into disrepute, relieved of £3,000.“The RFU will not condone public criticism of match officials through the media, because it will damage the game by undermining confidence and creating divisions,” said the panel’s chairman, Jeff Blackett, who was then in charge of discipline at Twickenham. “This sentence,...
For decades coaches spoke about up-skilling players so shirt numbers don’t matter. It’s happening now in the Six NationsThere are plenty of visions of the future around at the moment. One has three initials – CVC – and is entwining itself, triffid-like, around the commercial rights of almost every significant rugby competition worldwide. Another is the standing water on numerous pitches in England and Wales, a portent of what may await lower-lying communities everywhere should global warming intensify.On Sunday at Twickenham it was more a case of joining the dots. There was George Kruis, a lock, aiming to kick the ball out of hand like a taller, gangly version of Owen Farrell. Charlie Ewels, another lock, could be seen packing...
Coach needs his old instincts to regain sharpness as he pits Curry against Ireland’s outstanding CJ Stander at TwickenhamEddie Jones used his experience to full advantage in his first four years in charge of England but since the World Cup final he has veered from grumpy to irascible, no longer sure of touch. On the day that the former Ireland second-row Dan Tuohy marked his retirement by declaring that rugby union was starting to look rotten from the core, Jones embroiled himself in more controversy, with an offensive throwaway remark to a reporter that was swiftly followed by an apology and a clarifying statement from the Rugby Football Union.Defeat to Ireland at Twickenham on Sunday would all but end their...