The RFU has given its backing to England head coach Eddie Jones after conducting a review of the team's fifth-place finish in the 2021 Six Nations.
Working to identify what went wrong in England's worst performance in the tournament since 1987, RFU chief executive Bill Sweeney oversaw the review which interviewed the Men's coaching staff and playing staff, as well as input from independent experts.
Jones admitted England ‘were not up to our usual high standards' as they were propped up by Italy in the Six Nations standings 18 months on from contesting the 2019 Rugby World Cup final.
Lacklustre to defeats to Scotland and Ireland bookended England's poor Six Nations title defence and left some corners of the media to place doubt over the future of the coach who replaced Stuart Lancaster in 2016.
But Jones, contracted until the end of the 2023 World Cup in France, will retain the ‘full support' of the RFU who had the option of a termination clause open to them as part of Jones' contract terms.
“We were all disappointed to finish fifth in the Six Nations,” RFU chief executive Bill Sweeney said.
“Our track record and results under Eddie meant that we, the players and our fans had much higher expectations.
“Sport is all about fine margins which is why every campaign debrief is invaluable in helping us to learn and improve.
“Eddie approached this review with a great deal of self-awareness and humility, allowing us to look at every aspect of the tournament to identify every small change we can make in order to improve.”
The results of the review will see adjustments to the Men's programme structure and philosophy, including a proposed summit between England staff and professional clubs which has scope to be held annually every summer.
The panel also identified the absences of skills coach Jason Ryles and Jones' right-hand man Neil Craig as factors which unsettled England's functioning, further to scrum coach Matt Proudfoot testing positive for COVID-19 and Jones having to self-isolate prior to the tournament kicking off.
Jones said: “During the Guinness Six Nations we were not up to our usual high standards and we recognise that.
The debrief was a valuable process, we all learned a lot from the experience and most importantly we have identified actions to enable the team to move forward positively towards 2023.
“I'm looking forward to the summer tour which will provide a great opportunity to see more of our emerging talent and I'm confident our next team will come back stronger this autumn building up to a winning performance in the next Six Nations.”
Changes to be made to the England Men's programme following 2021 Six Nations review
- Introduction of additional support structures for coaches and players including enhanced sports psychology and programmatic leadership development starting in the pathway.
- Additional refereeing input to provide technique improvement and awareness during player preparation and development.
- The use of data and analytics in high performance and campaign management is increasing and to support this approach, England Rugby will continue to work with Premiership Rugby with the objective of identifying and introducing one common data system across the pathway and elite performance game, this will be vital to monitoring and developing emerging talent in the pathway as well as being an additional tool to manage player welfare.
- The RFU will ensure external rugby experts inform all future debriefs to provide additional insight and support for the Head Coach. These external advisors will also be utilised after each campaign to provide regular reviews and support for the coaching strategy for future Six Nations campaigns and in the build up to Rugby World Cup 2023.
- To evolve its strategic approach to the game, the RFU aims to deepen its alignment between England Rugby performance and professional clubs. This will start with a proposed summer conference for England Rugby, professional clubs, referees and medics to find common ground and goals for the English game moving forward
