Is Eddie Jones the right man for England?

Lancaster was chosen by a panel of experts after exhaustive tests and interviews.

Jones was to hold a Twickenham news conference on Friday.

Jones has a lot of rugby to watch between now and February, and his first selection for England’s opening match in Scotland will be scrutinised and picked over by fans and pundits alike as everyone tries to determine how he want’s England to play, and whether he can bring the success that English rugby craves.

“I don’t feel good about what I did with the Stormers, but at the same time I’m excited about this opportunity”, he said.

While England Rugby needed to recruit an internationally renowned winning coach to make statement of ambition, Jones will still need a pipeline of players coming through the system who respect the game and what it means to wear the shirt. Smart coach & will call a spade a spade! “I might grab him for a coffee down there”, said Jones.

“The game in England needs to send young players and coaches overseas to develop their skills in other cultures and environments, gaining real experience”. He understands the game inside-out and is there to win, whichever job he has been in. A calamity on this autumn’s scale can erase belief.

“Firstly my thanks must go to Rob Wagner and everyone at Western Province Rugby for understanding my decision and allowing me to return to the worldwide stage so quickly”, Jones said in a statement. Jones wants his team to have a “unique” identity and force the world champions and others to follow their agenda. For the national team to do well, we need the Premiership clubs to play good rugby. If guys decide to play overseas, they’ve given up the right to play for England.

Jones has coached in Africa, Australasia, Europe (with Saracens) and Asia.

12 – Number of times Jones played as a front-row forward for New South Wales.

“You need talent and you need cohesion – and there is plenty of talent in England”.

Jones told reporters last week he was committed to the Stormers despite media speculation linking him with the England job, but admitted he found the lure of London too great after only three weeks in his new role.

“Amazingly enough I have already had contact from a few big-name coaches (this week) and I will, once again, look both internally and externally before continuing to plot the way ahead for WP Rugby and the Stormers”. But it will be fascinating to see how they react to being “sprayed”, to use Giteau’s term.

“I have learned to be soft as I got older”. I have learned that.

The next great challenge Stuart faced was to reconnect the pride of playing for the badge.

Under Stuart Lancaster’s previous administration, the talent was there, but the consistency of selection was not, and Jones will want to establish what his strongest starting XV as soon as possible, something that Lancaster never quite managed, though he wasn’t helped by persistent injury setbacks.

“Obviously I have ideas in place but I need to appraise the staff and work out what we need”. Although I was initially named in the 50-man World Cup training squad, I felt from the start that I would not be involved in the tournament.

The devil-angel balance will be a tough one to strike with a team who were nowhere near as good as they thought they were, and were last seen prostrate on a pitch where New Zealand were in another universe.