Eddie Jones: I was abused by a ‘clown’ in Twickenham crowd

On his return to England, Jones backed under-fire Steve Borthwick, praised Marcus Smith and rebuffed Danny Care

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Eddie Jones claimed he was abused by a “clown” in the crowd on his return to Twickenham, where his Japan side were beaten 59-14 by England.
The England head coach, who skipped media duties during the build-up because of illness, appeared for a post-match press conference and summed up his personal experience of the game as bittersweet.
“It wasn’t bad until some clown abused me going down to half-time,” Jones said. “But if there’s only one clown in 81,364, that’s not too bad. It wasn’t bad, apart from the result.
“He said something but I’m not going to repeat it here because I’ll get into trouble,” added the Australian.
The RFU later released a statement condemning the abuse of Jones: “No coaches, players or match officials should be abused for doing their job.”
Jones also refused to be drawn on comments made by Danny Care in the latter’s autobiography, in which the former England scrum-half likened Jones’ tenure to a “dystopian novel”.
Care claimed that players were “terrified” of Jones as squad members were dropped and staff members lost their jobs. Jones, however, joked that he would be releasing his own book about Care. “I’ve got a new book deal,” he said. “It’s called Caring About Care. Come and get your pre-order forms. Get them while they’re hot.
“I’m trying to sort out a deal with the Daily Mail but I haven’t come to an agreement yet.”
Borthwick later revealed that he and Jones, long-time colleagues with both Japan and England, met up on Friday to “talk rugby”. Jones was later invited to assess England’s current state after an autumn comprising three losses and this solitary win.
“It’s one of those difficult periods [for England],” Jones said. “The team is obviously going through a transition. There are some good young players coming through.
“Chandler Cunningham-South is a good player, Tommy Freeman and Tom Roebuck are coming through. Ollie Lawrence is getting some consistency in his play. They’re in a sticky period where you might play against a good team and lose by one or two points.
“Today, they gave a lesson in pressure rugby. Every time they got on the front foot, they put the ball in behind and chased. We got suffocated today. Knowing Steve, that is the way he will want them to play.”
There was particularly warm praise for Marcus Smith as Jones explained how an inexperienced Japan outfit would benefit from Sunday afternoon.
“It’s just time and lessons like this,” Jones said. “When you’ve got 200 caps [in total], it means most players have played 10 Tests or less. You don’t have that collective adaptation.
“I look at Marcus today, having brought him in myself [with England] when he was young. Now he’s so confident in his decision-making. He’s composed, and he still has that bit of electricity. That’s what you get from playing 40 Tests.
“Because we [Japan] want to play differently, and faster, it puts more pressure on your skills. We’ve got to stick to it, there’s no magic solution.”
Borthwick said his side have taken strides forward in a year in which they have won just five of their 12 matches. Victory over Japan ended a run of five successive defeats. In four of those losses, England have been leading in the final quarter, which will leave a sour taste from the Autumn Nations Series.
However, Borthwick says that emotion is counterbalanced by the way in which England have developed their attacking identity which yielded 17 tries in four games. “As you reflect on it, the obvious overriding feeling will be one of frustration to have come so close to getting results but not actually able to convert them in the first three weeks,” Borthwick said. “That will be one emotion. The other aspect of it was real positivity around how the team plays. I want the team to be brave with the ball. I want them to play fast. I think we’ve seen growth in that area over the last four weeks.
“You can see the identity they’re trying to build as a team. A team moves the ball and that can score in different ways. Again, some of the tries were exceptional. I think in the last four weeks, we’ve scored some really outstanding tries with the skill level that is in this group.”
Borthwick will now undertake a full debrief over the next two weeks before turning his attention to the Six Nations with England opening their campaign away to Ireland. The flip side to the promise shown in attack is a susceptibility in their blitz defence which was again exposed by Japan.
However Borthwick insists that England will not change the system that defence coach Joe El-Abd inherited from Felix Jones. “I think we always want to put the opposition skillset under pressure,” Borthwick said “That’s something that is fundamental as part of our game. When you start looking at the make-up of our team and the athleticism we’re trying to develop within it, you see that pressure is good for us.”
Will Greenwood
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