England are in a bad place at the moment.
Despite poor results over the last couple of years, Eddie Jones has consistently said that he is building a team for the World Cup in 2023. Now less than 12 months out from the tournament, they seem in a worse position than ever.
The loss against South Africa was the latest one in a long run of poor results under his tutelage. The English were outplayed at Twickenham by a second-string Springbok side, with the visitors even playing the final 20 minutes of the game with 14 men after Thomas du Toit's red card. They were booed off the pitch at full-time.
It seems that very few in England still have faith that Jones will turn things around with this current group, although he is not the only one that is coming under fire for their current run.
Clive Woodward launches attack on Conor O'Shea
Clive Woodward has been calling for Eddie Jones' dismissal for some time, but he has now turned his attentions to others within the RFU. That includes Irishman Conor O'Shea.
O'Shea is currently the director of performance in the RFU, taking up the role after resigning as Italy's head coach at the end of 2019. He has helped oversee the direction that the team has moved in over the last three years, with their trajectory being largely downward.
Writing in his column in the Daily Mail, Woodward would say that O'Shea and chief executive officer Billy Sweeney were clearly out of their depth in their current roles and call for them to resign.
I know what it’s like to be successful at the top level of international rugby and I don’t see the qualities needed do that in the leading figures at the RFU. It comes back to Bill Sweeney and Conor O’Shea at the top of the organisation who aren’t good enough to be in their current positions...
I don’t know where the RFU go from here. Sweeney and O’Shea are paying the price for not employing a director of rugby. An autumn this bad has been coming and coming for a while.
The RFU has held reviews into the England team on the back of poor results in the past.
But doing so again and asking whether or not Jones will be fired is a moot point.
Jones won’t get sacked. There is no point having another review unless Sweeney and the RFU have the backbone to name those who undertake it. That hasn’t happened in the past which makes the fact it takes place irrelevant...
Not naming the people involved in the RFU means there is no transparency. The English rugby public needs to know who they are.
I think Sweeney and O’Shea should both be looking at their positions in the morning, as the MPs at the DCMS hearing suggested, in Sweeney’s case at least.
Unfortunately, they don’t have the rugby knowledge to be where they are...
The reality is Jones will continue as head coach. The reality is Sweeney will remain as chief executive. The reality is neither he nor O’Shea will question Jones on England’s future direction of travel. The RFU is getting what it deserves.
It seems likely that despite their shocking recent form, England will be stuck with the current setup until after the World Cup.
Eddie Jones is all but certain to leave at that point, while the positions of Conor O'Shea and others will also come under review.
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