Chris Robshaw was last night facing the prospect of showdown talks with new England head coach Eddie Jones, who is seeking an inspirational captain in the Richie McCaw mould.
When the Australian was unveiled amid great fanfare at Twickenham yesterday, he set his stall out to start his regime with a clean slate in the aftermath of the Stuart Lancaster era which ended in World Cup failure.
Jones was highly critical of Robshaw, the Harlequins flanker, when writing exclusively for Sportsmail during the tournament.
But yesterday he said: ‘I was a newspaper columnist — I was being a bit naughty. I have to sit down with Chris. Everyone is starting on zero. He’s got a nice cafe in Winchester. I might grab him for a coffee down there.’
The captaincy will be one of the pressing issues on the agenda for 55-year-old Jones, once he has settled on his management team. Robshaw was Lancaster’s leader throughout his tenure but his status is in jeopardy given the new coach’s views on his limitations as an openside.
They were still packing up the remnants of the World Cup at Twickenham when the man charged with leading England’s recovery made his grand entrance.
Jones had drawn a large media throng and he revelled in the occasion. The grin rarely faltered. The one-liners soon had the audience onside. Beside the Australian recruit, RFU chief executive Ian Ritchie radiated quiet satisfaction.
His dash to Cape Town last weekend had led to the union securing the services of a head coach with ‘proven international experience’, in keeping with the principles outlined in the aftermath of Lancaster’s abrupt departure days earlier. So, while the circumstances surrounding his arrival were grim, the capture of Jones represented a strong and decisive response.
While he ticks most of the boxes, his nationality will be a negative factor for some, yet his riposte was prompt and emphatic. By committing to the development of English assistants who can take charge when he steps aside in 2019, Jones diluted some of the inevitable opposition to an outsider running the national team.
Another thorny issue that immediately reared its head was the RFU edict against the selection of players based abroad. Lancaster had resolutely adhered to the policy.
‘You always have a bit of a view when you’re outside the tent,’ he said. ‘I want players who want to play for England and to play for England, you have to play in the Premiership.’
This is a hot-potato subject on the basis of Steffon Armitage’s eye-catching exploits for Toulon. Lancaster was repeatedly forced to explain his continuing omission of the master poacher, and his successor’s willingness to maintain the status quo is likely to be a concession to the RFU.
Yesterday was an occasion where renewed optimism made a decent fist of chasing post-World Cup gloom out of town. Jones exuded positive energy and a conviction he had inherited the keys to global prosperity. Despite the despondency of recent weeks, the potential of a young England squad suggests Jones was right to view this job as too good to resist.
He set out a simple blueprint. ‘There are two things you need to win a game of rugby,’ said Jones. ‘You need talent and you need cohesion. There is plenty of talent in England, so you’ve got to work on cohesion.’
Asked if that process was complicated, given the clubs have control of the leading players for long periods and there is no unity of purpose, he added: ‘One of the things I might do when they first come into camp is get them to wear club colours, to get them to understand they’ve got to take that off. If you want to wear that jersey underneath your England jersey, you can’t play for England. You’ve got to think like an English player.’
During the Lancaster regime, there was a sense the ambition was to emulate New Zealand. Jones wants his team to have a ‘unique’ identity and force the world champions and others to follow their agenda.
‘We’re not going to copy the All Blacks,’ he said. ‘We want the All Blacks to look at England. England have traditionally been strong at set-piece and have had a bulldog defence, and we don’t want to take that away. You’ve got to create your own style and I want the players to believe in it 100 per cent.
‘Teams I’ve coached always had quite a good attack. We’ve got to develop the mindset to attack — whether we’ve got the ball or haven’t got the ball.’
Jones is due to attend a World Rugby event in Los Angeles next week, then head back to Japan before returning to England to start work on December 1. He will set about confirming the identity of three assistant coaches and other backroom staff, before turning his attentions to the captaincy and selection of his first squad.
As Twickenham undergoes a post-World Cup transformation, the same is beginning to happen with the England team. For now, hope reigns. – Daily Mail