The Rugby Football Union chief executive, Bill Sweeney, has insisted he takes “no pleasure whatsoever” in Eddie Jones’s desperate plight with Australia and does not believe he should have sacked the former England head coach sooner.
Sweeney got rid of Jones last December after an autumn campaign that included defeats by Argentina and South Africa, less than 10 months before the World Cup. Steve Borthwick was hastily installed as head coach before a disastrous Six Nations campaign and equally dismal warm-up programme, only for England to reach the World Cup quarter-finals as pool winners.
