England have been massively disappointing under Eddie Jones over the last couple of years. A nation with their playing pool should always be winning more than a combined four fixtures across two Six Nations campaigns, coming nowhere near challenging for the championship on either occasion.
The pressure has been mounting on their head coach as a result, although the RFU seem content to keep him in the position for now. That all but guarantees that he will be leading the team at the World Cup in 2023.
Despite this, Jones seem to be quickly losing whatever remaining support he had in England.
His decision to return to Japanese club Suntory Sungoliath in recent weeks has caused even more friction, with the Aussie linking up with the likes of All Black Damian McKenzie and Australia's Samu Kerevi in the weeks ahead. He made a similar move in 2021.
Suntory Sungoliath coach Milton Haig believes that the criticism directed Jones' way over this decision is unfair.
Eddie is over here at the moment helping us out. He's hard at work. He's not having a holiday here, that's for sure.
He's running a few drills for us around our breakdowns and doing a lot of talking to the young players.
He's not doing it because he wants money or praise, he's doing it because he has a long affiliation with the club and he wants to see the club progress and see the young players progress.
I think he gets a kick out of just helping out really and having no expectations. That's probably a bit of rest for him in itself.
I saw the kerfuffle that went on in the press over there (last year) - they probably won't like it he's talking to Samu Kerevi and Damian McKenzie at the moment.
It's a storm in a teacup - he's just a rugby man and is really keen to talk to rugby people and see what he can learn off them.
However, not all would agree with that.
Writing in The Times, Stuart Barnes said that this was a terrible look for both the Jones and the RFU despite his long association with the Japanese club.
It looks terrible for the England manager; it looks even worse for the RFU who appear to have committed themselves to a relationship in which Jones holds all the trumps...
This weekend is European Cup action. Exeter play the rugged men of Munster and Leicester play Clermont in the Auvergne region of France — but Jones is in Japan.
Of course he can watch the games on television but so too can he watch the Premiership without travelling from one end of the English rugby country to the other.
There’s an Australian tour of vital importance coming up in July and one assumes the England head coach would want to see contenders in the flesh. The broadcasters do a fine job of televising live rugby but it’s not the same as sitting in the stands, attention focused on one or two men.
One of the men Jones will coach during his sojourn is Australia’s Samu Kerevi. Never mind the pleasure of coaching one of the best inside centres on the planet, he will — if Australia and his Japanese contractors reach an agreement (oh, the irony) — be facing up to him in a few months.
How can the genius of Jones help his Japanese employers without making each man a better player? Therefore working with the centre is potentially detrimental to England. If Jones is as good as his legend suggests, Kerevi and Australia will benefit from this break.
Whatever the contractual situation, whatever pure motives Jones might have for a relaxing break away from the pre-eminent day job, it looks all wrong.
Barnes would also question how wise it is for Jones to travel to Japan instead of scouting this weekend's Champions Cup quarter-finals, a fair question.
Charlie Morgan shared a similar sentiment in his piece in The Telegraph.
Easy to appreciate that knowledge-sharing is A Good Thing. Easy to appreciate that working with elite players is A Good Thing. Still think this is another gaffe that will disenfranchise England supporters and, maybe more so, players. https://t.co/otATrEgo30
— Charlie Morgan (@CharlieFelix) April 5, 2022
While this seems like a minor issue, the timing provides a, easy stick with which to beat Eddie Jones.
Of course, he is unlikely to pay too much attention to any public sentiment surrounding his position.
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