VIVALDI had a thing for the four seasons, and, with England’s 2021 Six Nations campaign looking like a spring shocker, so does this column. While it may seem uncharitable to dissect Eddie Jones’ record by leaving out his turbo-charged first two years in charge, the reality is that in the four seasons from 2018 to 2021, Jones has only a 50 per cent win-loss ratio against the leading sides in the world when England play them in a competitive environment.
This means dispensing with peripheral matches like World Cup warm-ups and the Autumn Nations Cup. It concentrates instead on results in Worl...