Eddie Jones to coach England

The RFU may have swapped one schoolteacher who was too small to play top-level rugby for another one as England head coach but Jones will give a very different lead to Stuart Lancaster.

Harlequins flanker Robshaw was appointed England captain by Lancaster in 2012 and has 43 worldwide caps.

“I want players who want to play for England and to play for England you have to play in the Premiership, and the Premiership is a strong competition”.

“I have to pick the players to fit the team and the style we are going to play”. All those stories about Richie McCaw in New Zealand were true. He cleans the changing room after the game and that’s the sort of guy you want. You will find that by considering one player a certain method of playing will be possible, by considering another, another method would be more practical. “For the national team to do well we need the Premiership clubs to play good rugby”.

“Leadership is something you have to develop”.

He guided Australia to the 2003 World Cup final in Sydney where England’s Jonny Wilkinson sent over a last minute drop kick to break Australian hearts.

“If Cipriani’s good enough to be in the 30, he’ll be in the 30”, Jones said.

“I’m a mate of Eddie’s so I can only speak highly of him. Now, that would be sensitive”.

Jones has made it clear he will step down upon completion of his contract, insisting the cycle of an worldwide post reaches its natural conclusion after four years.

However, the 55-year-old will first ensure there is an Englishman among his assistants who has been groomed to take over after Japan 2019. The rest is World Cup history.

“Now the only experience National One and National Two players get is to play more or less the same group of teams like Groundhog Day”. “All I can say is that there are a few good players out there, really good players”.

Eddie Jones breezed into Twickenham on Friday – after rising at 4am to get himself prepared – and announced that he had taken on the “best job” in the world with “so much raw talent” at his disposal, dismissing any suggestion that taking England to the top of the world was mission impossible.

“Everyone wants to have their own nationalities as a head coach and I understand that”. Lancaster was condemned by a few for approaching the England job as a schoolmaster, but, according to David Campese, Jones’s approach to a coaching job is also that of a schoolmaster. “I can do that”.

Jones, having stepped down as Japan coach, was barely a week into his time with the Stormers. I want to make sure that the staff that we’re all thinking the same way, that is the important thing. “I am happy with that”, he added.

Defence guru Edwards has been offered a WRU contract extension through to the 2019 World Cup, with Warren Gatland eager to retain his team of assistants.

“I see that as a fundamental part of my job”. The Australian has been appointed the country’s first ever overseas man at the helm on a four-year deal but is keen to nurture home grown coaches in order to pass the torch at the end of his tenure.

Jones also has to decide whether to continue with the non-selection of foreign based players or not, which will be no easy task, given the previously mentioned power of French clubs, and how to re-integrate those players who were not selected for the World Cup for disciplinary reasons, namely Dylan Hartley and Manu Tuilagi.