We will probably have to wait until he has left the job to hear exactly what Eddie Jones thinks about how club and country co-exist in England but he gave a clue shortly before he was appointed. “How can you manage your players when they are controlled by other organisations?” the Australian asked in late 2015. “In my opinion, that’s the single greatest task ahead of whoever is going to be appointed as the next England coach.”
It is a task Jones initially met with belligerence – as demonstrated with his “Donald Trump of rugby” jibe at the Bath owner Bruce Craig – but one that he has learned to grin and bear, and while the Rugby Football Union rarely behaves like Jones is kept on any sort of leash, it seems obvious he is now under strict instruction when it comes to criticising that particular arrangement. It is up for renewal soon enough, after all.
