Eddie Jones will be running the rule over England’s Six Nations performances – Getty Images/Ryan Hiscott
Enter, stage right, the pantomime villain, soon to land on English, French, Scottish and Italian soil to shake the foundations of rugby punditry. Except this is no fictional realm, no pantomime: this is cold, stark reality. Eddie Jones, the former England coach famed as much for his vociferousness as his acuity, is joining ITV’s punditry team for the upcoming championship.
The bad news – for England, at least – is that it means Jones will be running the roost over players and coaches who he led as recently as two-and-a-half years ago. Jones, under whom current England head coach Steve Borthwick was an apprentice of sorts, was known for his uncompromising approach to training and selection and there is no reason to suggest why those traits will not extend into his first foray into punditry in Britain.
Below surface level, the appointment is a significant victory for Jones in his long-running feud with England’s World Cup-winning coach Sir Clive Woodward. The two have been at loggerheads in recent times, each offering digs at the other in the media, and the saga takes yet another compelling turn. It is Woodward whom Jones has replaced in the punditry role, with the former ending a long association with the broadcaster.
In England, Jones’s return provides subplots aplenty but, generally, it is a welcome addition to rugby’s punditry stable. There is no shortage of expertise or acumen among the sport’s leading observers but there is a paucity of old-fashioned forthrightness. Sometimes, spades need to be called spades and that is surely where ITV will expect Jones to shine. Jones can be to rugby what Roy Keane and Graeme Souness have been to football in terms of their punditry insight but, also, their explosive argumentativeness.
And how rugby needs a Keane-like figure, whose opinion and view, often within the fiery Sky cabal of Gary Neville and Jamie Carragher, often sets the agenda for Britain’s biggest sport. It is not uncommon for the dialogue on either Super Sunday or Monday Night Football to become essential reading for Premier League fans everywhere in the following day’s newspapers, as well as essential viewing on the night itself (for those who subscribe to Sky Sports).
Football is evidently a bigger beast but when was the last time that rugby had a pundit whose words even came close to having the same agenda-setting reverberation? Telegraph columnist Brian Moore is probably the only person who came close but even then, Moore was in co-commentary, only calling the action on the field. He was seldom involved in the post-match post-mortem.
The only time that rugby pundits hit the headlines is on the rare occasion that one of them does something so idiotic the world just simply has to see – like congratulating the losing team’s captain on a hard-fought victory – or if one becomes embroiled in some kind of plight away from the sport. Rugby Tonight on Sundays – reviewing the weekend’s Premiership action – tried to imitate the hard-hitting debrief of MNF but it was always too milky and chummy to achieve real cut-through, despite its astute analysis.
At all levels – both international and domestically – the sport needs a new generation of pundits. Not necessarily younger, but a fresh crop who would be more willing to upset the apple cart, unafraid of putting their heads on the chopping block for the sake of the sport, to give it greater exposure and engender deeper debate among its fanbase.
For the supporter, Jones on our screens should be welcomed, despite the often tiresome nature of his personality, as a progressive move.
For England’s players, however, during this Six Nations they will be exiting the turf, pursued by an austere Australian.
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The post Rugby has found its Roy Keane: Eddie Jones will liven up ITV’s Six Nations with panto villain act first appeared on Rugby 247.
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Author : rugby-247
Publish date : 2025-01-21 14:28:50
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