Nice one Eddie - apparently a few years back when Sam Burgess, a world class Rugby League player, was in the England union squad, there was snobbery against him, part of why he didn't fit in. Posh schools play wugger, state schools play footy, tennis is middle class, golf used to be!!! What's the relevance? Go back to when English clubs returned to European competition after the Heysel ban - our managers were builders the foreign managers were architects. The likes of Pep, Wenger, Klopp and Tuchel bring high intellect into our game - people talk of a class system over here but it can be a class culture where middle class people lapse into lazy superiority against those who seem less well educated, and where working class people perceive intelligence as pretentious or unrealistic. Outsiders like Eddie Jones can see the limiting impact of class snobbery that is more engrained in Britain than elsewhere - I think it's why we don't excel or innovate in certain areas, sport is one, manufacturing is another. Harry Redknapp has said the FA is full of academics who don't get football - many of them probably prefer rugby, but only the union version, rugby league is 'non-U'.

(Sir) Clive Woodward?

I'm a blind man, i'm a blind man, now my room is cold,
When a blind man cries, Lord, he feels it from his soul.
[Link]

we don't produce top coaches in rugby or football - we don't innovate in major sports, I think it's down to a lack of meritocracy fuelled by an easy route to feeling superior from public school status. Rugby has independent school origins - but that was 200 years ago, football has more working class origins, but we are talking 19th century. One example, the great comedy actor Leonard Rossiter had trials at Everton when he was 14, but he was discouraged from pursuing a career in football because he was a grammar school boy and football was considered a step down. Sometimes a minor example can reveal a lot. Another example is the fact there was a 77 year gap between the Wimbledon triumphs of Fred Perry and Andy Murray. Up until 10 or 15 years ago players had to bow to the royal box coming off centre court - I think those two facts are intimately related, not a coincidence a direct causal link. Viva la Republique, sovereignty for the people, Mick Lynch for PM. Eddie Jones is failing? We didn't do too bad in Eddie's back yard lately, and he's timing things for the World Cup, a massive step up on Stuart Lancaster but people stay loyal to some prehistoric form of patriotism. Be good if the edifying quality in private schools was also diercted at the state sector - then we might start to compete with Germans, Australians, pakistanis and Spaniards, or other modern countries where intelligence and talent is rated higher than 'poshness'. I'm not saying Stuart Lancaster was chosen for his poshness btw, but look at the FA's attitude towards Venables and Redknapp, and how gentleman Roy was chosen over Harry for the England job. That's what Eddie was pointing at I think, and I think he's spot on.

Please sack Eddie Jones. Absolute chancer. And as said previously, Garland will not cut it. New, young thinking required.
The Autumn series was awful bar the draw with New Zealand - and that seemed down to the luck of Farrell being injured, forcing Smith to actually be a ten.
Eddie Jones out is must. Awful.

Red and Blue Army!

Good riddance. Am not happy with Borthwick though. My ay as well write off the France world cup and the Six Nations. I avidly watch every match and found myself increasingly disillusioned by turgid displays and by rubbish refereeing and poor management of the game altogether. Can barely remember an adequate England performance - let alone a good one. Jones' excuses were wearing thin with everyone. No team has won the World Cup going into it on sh1t form. It's that that has cost him the job.
Trouble is Borthwick couldn't inspire anyone and is a boring and underqualified choice. The obvious ones were O'Gara - who just wouldn't take the poor performances, and Robertson - who would have completely suited England's carrying game. The RFU is ultimately to blame.
Overall the sport is going backwards. At least, a manufactured France win in the World Cup will give the French some interest for a while.
Look at Wasps and Worcester, anyone care?

Red and Blue Army!

Consistency at its best from England - continuation of rubbish.

Red and Blue Army!