Representatives from different countries
2022.12.06
［ Satoshi Takehana ］
Eddie Jones, who has been the England national team manager since November 2015, was sacked less than a year before the Rugby World Cup. The English Rugby Union (RFU) made the official announcement on 6 December.
A successor will be announced in the near future.
England have won just one of their last four games in the Autumn Nations Series against Japan (52-13). They managed to draw with New Zealand in an offensive match before the match (25-25), but were defeated by South Africa (13-27) and even Argentina (29-30).
Jones even called this fall’s test match a ‘Mini World Cup’, with Argentina, Japan, New Zealand and South Africa in that order. Having defeated Argentina and Japan in the same group in the group stage of next year’s World Cup, they were looking to face New Zealand and South Africa, who were very likely to meet in the finals, and end the slump this with 4 games unbeaten. victory.
He won the Australian expedition this summer with 2 wins and 1 loss, but in the Six Nations (competition of the 6 European countries), he finished in 3rd place with 2 wins and 3 losses. England’s record in 2022 is 5 wins, 6 losses and 1 draw. This record has been a “disaster” since 2008 when it became a record slump of 4 wins and 7 losses. The English Rugby Union, which is said to boast the world’s largest budget and is effectively run as a large British company. If it does not bring results, it will make a ruthless decision similar to a British company to go for results through a bold restructuring.
Jones, who is considered the most expensive manager of the national team, has an annual income of 750,000 pounds (about 125 million yen). As the contract is until the end of the 2023 World Cup, there should be a penalty for early termination, but the association must have been quite determined to replace the director even if it cost them.
Jones is known for his outspokenness, and in pre-match press conferences, he calls out the opposing team’s players and coaches in psychological warfare.
Including the Grand Slam in 2016, the first year of his appointment, he won the Six Nations title three times in seven years, and finished second at the 2019 World Cup. At 62, he is confident he has a long way to go from still as a rugby coach, and maybe he will come to the World Cup as another country’s national team coach. He still does not know which country he will be in, or if this will be his last job as a national coach.
