Eddie Jones fails to mince words as he gives honest opinion on Sir Clive Woodward
Eddie Jones isn’t everyone’s cup of English breakfast tea. After being unceremoniously dumped from both the England and Australian head coach jobs within the space of a year, the 63-year-old has left in his wake a trail of destruction, doubt, anger, and disappointment.
Even if it would be simple for us to sit here and declare that his latest appointments have been nothing short of disastrous, there are a million and one moving pieces at work all the time. It’s easy to forget that he achieved a number of notable feats while coaching England, including leading them to a World Cup final, setting a record for the highest England coach win percentage of 73%, and leading them to an undefeated season in 2016.s.
Former jousting partner David Campese blamed the Rugby Australia board rather than Jones for his recent unsuccessful stay with the Wallabies.
Even while everyone is going to have different thoughts about the individual, Jones has voiced disapproval of Sir Clive Woodward, a former coach with whom he personally has issues.
During a recent appearance on the renowned English rugby league podcast The Bye Round Podcast, Jones stated: “You’ve
had to be honest about what you think,” Jones said. “He’s the ‘world’s best coach,’ but he hasn’t coached since 2005.” When you don’t coach, you’re the greatest coach in the world. What is the man in the arena, the old thing?
“He is a constant critic. While we were coaching Australia and England, we had a little falling out, but his main complaint was that he wanted to be England’s director of rugby. He was hoping to be in charge of it, but he was never appointed to that position. He launched an internal campaign with the RFU to assume that role following the World Cup in 2019, and he did it behind my back. I found this to be rather cunning and dishonest.
So every time since, if he says something, I really don’t value his thoughts at all and I don’t like him as a bloke. Because he was so deceitful. Most blokes in our sport, they’re generally face-to-face, and I don’t mind that. If someone has a different opinion, say it and we’ll have a debate about it. But when people start doing things behind your back, and particularly the power he had in the media, I thought it was a bit red hot.
“He made it personal by doing all that stuff behind the scenes. He’ll deny it to the hilt. But I always find it a bit sad, and I hope that when I do finish coaching I don’t become one of those blokes that knows everything. ‘He should have done thing, he should have made the change here’- coaching and playing is all about foresight, being a pundit is all about hindsight and you’re always right.”
