When it comes to England Rugby there’s been much discussion of late about what’s happening now? What's happening after after England finished in fifth position? Is it just being parked and brushed aside?
Well, at Twickenham Stadium on Wednesday lunchtime the RFU’s Chief Executive Steve Brown made clear about what is occurring internally and also gave his perspective on the recent competition. His appointment into this role was announced on September 1 last year and he replaced Ian Richie who retired from the position. The now CEO, had been involved with the RFU since 2011 as the Chief Financial Officer and also was the Managing Director of England Rugby 2015 as they were responsible for organising Rugby World Cup 2015.
Every month Steve Brown sits down openly with the media to provide his perspective, thoughts and opinions on various issues. These sessions cover a many topics and don’t just get put in the diary after something ‘big’ has come to light, they're ongoing.
As you’d expect at Twickenham Stadium on Wednesday the focus was very much on the senior men’s recent Six Nations Championship performances and tournament. His point of view was clear and he highlighted the detail of the next steps that I mentioned earlier.
“The results in the Six Nations were not what we wanted, not what we expected and there is no attempt by us to dress this up. Everyone is deeply disappointed, we will learn from this and make it doesn’t happen again.
“The key is, what do we do next? Eddie and his team do a thorough debrief, that's part of the routine. The debrief has started today and is part of an extensive review session. I was at the start of it this morning for the first hour or so. It's a thorough process that we do after every single tournament. It goes into some detail, including an analysis of what has gone on and what needs to happen. No stone is left unturned.
"Eddie comes to the board after each tournament and that has been set in the diary for a while. Eddie will come to the RFU board meeting on Wednesday to give a debrief and some of that will be the content of the review today, the views, thoughts and findings. It will also help the RFU board understand what has happened and more importantly what can we do to make it better going forward.”
The Chief Executive also use the term ‘a bit of a bump’ in the road and made it very clear what now wasn’t the time for.
“It's worth reflecting but Eddie has an 86 per cent win record with England. You don't become a bad coach or team overnight. We were motoring pretty well and things were going particularly well. We have hit a bit of a bump and now is the time to regroup and reassess and get back on track.
“Eddie and his coaches have my confidence and the measure of how good they and can be will be how they respond to these tough times. No one is patting each other on the back, they're looking for solutions to put us back to where we were before.
“We’re hugely disappointed but confident in the ability to turn this around. These are the moments when you don’t knee jerk without the evidence and data. We are not knee jerking but we are going to learn. We go again and we will bounce back.”
As you may have read from my reflective piece after England's loss at Twickenham Stadium I'm in accordance with these views. The losses against Scotland, France and Ireland and the performances in those games weren't what England's players, coaches or fans would have wanted to deliver. However, they happened and performances of that nature do in professional sport. Do sporting outfits always win? No. Do teams have challenging periods of time? Absolutely. It just so happens that when the English national side do stutter the wave of uproar is five, or ten, decibels higher than for any other side. It's worth pointing out at this moment in time that debriefs like the above occur after every competition the autumn internationals, a summer tour, a Six Nations... they're not reserved for 'bad' moments.
Of course Eddie Jones' contract was extended in January to beyond Rugby World Cup 2019 and Steve Brown’s opinion on that move was that it remains the right, and best thing, for the team.
“We spoke before and as you’ll recall the whole point of that [contract extension being announced now] is the two things we wanted to achieve. One of them was to secure Eddie post-World Cup based on success, so there’s a performance element in that. If Eddie is not successful, and we’re not successful, there is no contract after that so that is clear-cut.
“The second bit, which you may argue the opposite at the moment, was to take the distraction away. We didn’t want the distraction, the debate and the deliberations and whatever else might have been on Eddie’s future, and our future, in the build-up to the World Cup. They were the two primary reasons for doing that and absolutely it was the right thing to do and we stick by it.”
Personally I see no reason to make a change - and find it difficult to get my head the perspective of those calling for a change - and even if the tour to South Africa involves a loss I can’t see England benefitting from this type of reaction now. I’ll go back to the initial point that the RFU's CEO made ‘you do not become a bad team or coach overnight’, he is right. One thing I do think that could add to this England side though would be to tap into the knowledge of a great attacking vision and mind, Ben Ryan as a clear example. From an RFU perspective because they are 'well-resourced' there is the financial support to bring in another individual to the team, whether or not that will happen will be based on the outputs of the ongoing review process and, of course, the perspective of the man at the helm Eddie Jones.
As I've stated already England's Six Nations campaign wasn't what anyone expected or any player, coach or fan wanted. However let's not forget some of the factors that were at play including a number of England's players that had been on the British & Irish Lions tour going into the competition without any form of prolonged rest. Lessons must, and will be learned, and rightly so in my opinion there won't be any knee-jerk reactions taken by the RFU's Chief Executive right now.
