To succeed in Australia as they did last time, the tourists will have to bully the hosts and not be distracted by the World CupOne by one the traditional pillars of shared Anglo-Australian culture are slipping away. Dame Edna Everage has long since hung up her frocks and the final episode of Neighbours is due to be aired on 1 August. Almost the last of the old-school entertainers still working the room is Eddie Jones, back on familiar soil and as keen as ever to enjoy his farewell Test series as England’s head coach.With no July tours scheduled next year before the Rugby World Cup and every chance of one-off, home-and-away Tests in a Nations League format becoming the future...
Eddie Jones has recalled three stalwarts for a tour of Australia with no sign of any momentum in their World Cup buildupWelcome to The Breakdown, the Guardian’s weekly (and free) rugby union newsletter. Here’s an extract from this week’s edition. To receive the full version every Tuesday, just pop your email in below:This was meant to be the week when English rugby union shifted the narrative. For all involved – players, coaches, even the media – the upcoming tour of Australia has been shimmering on the horizon like an oasis in the outback, offering a chance to look forward rather than endlessly back. It was also a prime opportunity to select a few fresh players with one eye on the...
Eddie Jones’s side are coming and Australian rugby is crying out for a national team with heart, brains and mongrelThere is something in the air at Rugby HQ and for once it isn’t panic. It smells, dangerously, like hope. The Australia-England three-Test series is less than a month away and Eddie Jones’s side are coming off another dud Six Nations tournament (two wins, three defeats). The coach is facing widespread calls to be sacked and his squad is missing powerhouse centres Manu Tuilagi and Henry Slade to injury.That’s quite a bit of blood in the water. But will Dave Rennie’s team have the teeth to rip in and win? Although the Wallabies won five straight last season against South Africa,...
There is plenty of excitement around the tranche of youngsters picked by Eddie Jones, but one man cannot be ignoredWelcome to The Breakdown, the Guardian’s weekly (and free) rugby union newsletter. Here’s an extract from this week’s edition. To receive the full version every Tuesday, just pop your email in below:For all that Henry Arundell’s first call-up to the England squad commands attention, for all that Eddie Jones has seen fit to cast his eye over another tranche of youngsters just a year before the World Cup campaign begins, the most significant inclusion for Sunday’s get-together is Manu Tuilagi. ’Twas ever thus and it is no coincidence that the night before naming his squad, Jones chose to spend it in...
The idea that the RFU wants an Englishman to replace Eddie Jones is fine in theory but will the right man be available?It may be a touch unfair – albeit good fun – to imagine the Succession screenwriters are overseeing the Rugby Football Union’s transition to life after Eddie Jones. No prizes for guessing who fulfils the Logan Roy role and there seem parallels too, between Kendall and Steve Borthwick, someone who has at times appeared the natural successor but about whom doubts over his suitability to be top dog have lingered.Sometimes though, life at the RFU can seem stranger than fiction. The chief executive, Bill Sweeney, and the performance director, Conor O’Shea, were last week at pains to point...