England rugby coach Eddie Jones confirms U-turn over controversial overseas player policy that has frozen out stars Steffon Armitage and Nick Abendanon
England coach Eddie Jones insists he now supports the Rugby Football Union’s controversial policy of freezing out of national duty stars who choose to play their club rugby overseas.
Australian Jones, who was confirmed as the successor to Stuart Lancaster on Friday, has previously been critical of the arrangement, stating last week that he felt it was handicapping England.
The policy meant that Lancaster did not pick France-based Steffon Armitage and Nick Abendanon – the last two recipients of the European Player of the Year award – for this year’s World Cup.
England became the first hosts to crash out at the pool stage in an outcome that cost Lancaster his job, but RFU chief executive Ian Ritchie says he and the board will not budge on the issue.
“I had a good discussion with Ian in Cape Town on that area and I understand – I’ve been on both sides of the fence,” said Jones, who has coached in the Premiership with Saracens.
“I understand the relationship with the RFU. I understand, in terms of the RFU, what they want. I think the current laws are the right regulation to have.”
Jones’s comments come just days after he called coping with the policy “the single greatest task of whoever is going to be appointed as the next England coach”.
“How can you manage your players when they are controlled by other organisations?” he said.
Ritchie defended the RFU’s England player access arrangement, which centres on an agreement with Premiership clubs. “We’ll continue to look at it,” he said. “But it’s a mutual partnership. Eddie understands how it works with the Premiership and he’s very comfortable with that.”
Former Wallabies coach Jones, who led Japan to three wins at the World Cup, plans to meet England captain Chris Robshaw to decide whether to retain a player he has called “not outstandingly good in any area”.
“It all starts again now, you’ve got to remember that,” Jones added. “But certainly one of the first things I do when I start the job officially on 1 December is sit down with Chris and have a chat with him, see where his head is at, see what he wants to do in the future, and see if he meets the right demands of what I want in a captain.”