Eddie Jones has got his payday – and what a payday it is.
The 57-year-old, on Wednesday, penned a new two-year contract extension with England Rugby, believed to be worth an estimated £750,000 a year (plus bonuses), to stay until 2021.
Following that, here’s three reasons why the Australian has been so successful in accumulating 22 wins from 23 matches, including a world record equaling 18 Test victories in a row, during two (and a bit) years in charge of the Red Rose so far.
1. ENGLAND WEREN’T THAT BAD TO START WITH
Yes, England had a shocker at the Rugby World Cup, bowing out in the Pool stage at their home tournament, but before that they had a good run under Stuart Lancaster who guided them to a 28-17-1 record as coach from 2012-15. They were runners-up in the Six Nations every year under his tenure. The core of a good side was already there and if you take out the colossal Sam Burgess stuff up, Lancaster’s biggest mistake, maybe England would have performed much better at the RWC on home soil.
2. GREAT CROP OF FRESH TALENT
Jones has been extremely lucky that his reign has coincided with the rise of an extremely talented group of young players, chief amongst them the phenomenal Saracens and Lions lock Maro Itoje, who Jones handed a debut too in just his second match in charge. Other talented players to emerge in Jones’ time are Kyle Sinckler, Elliot Daly and Ben Teo, both stars on the Lions tour of New Zealand last year and Nathan Hughes. Yes Jones had to pick them – and Lancaster did make some big selection errors (such as Dylan Hartley) – but the emergence of this golden quintet in his first few years in charge sure has made his job easier.
3. HE HASN’T PLAYED THE ALL BLACKS
Yes, Jones’ record is impressive but it has a great big black hole in the middle – in his first two years as coach he is yet to play the All Blacks. So without facing up to the world’s No.1 his England team are yet to be truly tested against the best. There is no suggestion Jones has dodged the ABs but due to a strange quirk in the fixture list he has played 10 countries, some multiple times (Australia on five occasions, Argentina – four, Wales – three, Scotland – two, Italy – two, Ireland – two, France – two, Fiji – one, Samoa – one and South Africa – one) without ever coming up against Steve Hansen’s double World Cup champions. Until that happens – and it is scheduled for November 10 this year – we really won’t know how good England are and their statistics remain artificially inflated.
