Eddie’s ultimatum

The RFU has handed England head coach Eddie Jones an ultimatum that his side needs to perform in Autumn, following a poor 2018 campaign thus far.

England started their season with a fifth place finish in the Six Nations and followed it with a 2-1 series defeat to South Africa.

While the RFU was unwavering in support of Jones amidst the succession of losses and ensuing criticism, they have issued warning to the coach.

RFU chief executive Steve Brown said, “We plan to win every game we play. We expect success in the autumn,” “I don’t want to predict failure, I’d rather predict success, but that’s not in blind faith. They’re all big matches. We’re planning to come out of the other side successful.”

Brown made it clear although this year’s decline was unacceptable, one must look at it as a very short period in an otherwise highly successful tenure.

“I’ve reflected over the time Eddie has been at his post and his win rate (80 per cent). The win rate is still very high – it’s significant and it’s hard to argue against it,” Brown said.

“It’s important that we don’t just make a judgement on what’s happened in the very short term. Nevertheless, it was a pretty poor run of results.

“We showed great character for the result in Cape Town but the series result was disappointing, there’s no question about it. So was the Six Nations. Coming fifth in the Six Nations was a pretty difficult situation.

“The last result in South Africa was important, but not critical to any decisions we make about the future.

“The confidence comes from the history to date and talking to Eddie about the plans for the autumn and the World Cup and how to get back to that win rate.

“I’ve discussed this with Eddie and I’m confident those disappointing results are behind us and can be turned around.”