Eddie Jones’ philosophy only has a ‘limited time-frame’ of success – Warren Gatland

Wales head coach Warren Gatland believes that Eddie Jones’ style of management benefits teams in the short-term but does not necessarily lead to longer term success.

The two head coaches will meet in Lyon on Sunday when the Welsh go head-to-head with Australia in the crucial Rugby World Cup encounter.

Jones has a history of having an immediate impact when entering a job as he showed while in charge of the England team.

Early Red Rose success

They claimed successive Six Nations titles in 2016 and 2017 before they reached the final of the World Cup in 2019.

It all went downhill from there, however, and it culminated in Jones being sacked at the end of 2022 following a disappointing couple of years.

“There is no doubt that Eddie is very experienced and savvy, and, with England, he had the luxury of coaching a team that had so many more resources and players available to him,” Gatland wrote in his Telegraph column.

“We in contrast have had to fight for everything we have achieved and titles we have won, and that underdog mentality has been a positive for us: everything has been earned, nothing has been given to us.

“I am also a very loyal person in terms of my staff and my players. I am never going to throw someone under the bus. If you perform, I will back you.

“A big part of the success that I have had as coach is developing players over a period of time and creating an environment that they want to be part of.

“I am not sure Eddie has always had the same philosophy. He has a significant turnover in coaches and staff and can only presume that he demands really high standards and pushes people to limits they are not prepared to go to – and either they move on, or they are moved on.

“I guess there is a positive and negative to that approach, in that it stops people becoming complacent and can have a short-term impact.

“But there is no doubt in the past he has gone into environments and had success with the initial reaction from the group but then it appears to have a limited time-frame because of how hard he pushes the players and staff, and coping with that pressure.”

Wales boss Gatland also wrote about both his and Jones’ penchant for lobbing “verbal grenades” into the media before big matches.

All changed with Eddie

“At the time he took charge of England in 2016, I was probably the only head coach in the Six Nations with the reputation of throwing verbal grenades in the build-up to matches. When Eddie arrived, that all changed,” he added.

“I can remember standing behind him as we were both walking into a room of journalists at the launch of the Six Nations press conference and said: ‘Come on Eddie, don’t let me down, get out there and throw some grenades!’ He turned to me with a smile and said: ‘I will wait for you to go first.’

“It was a bit of fun. When I have been out on social occasions with him, I have always found him to be good company. But we are involved in professional sport so there is a sense of great rivalry, we are both competitive people and desperately want to beat the opposition.

“We also both know that the pantomime knock-about not only creates interest in the game but the use of verbal grenades can also be used either to take the pressure off the players or send a message to them or the opposition.

“I think when Eddie got the Wallabies job, part of his remit was to generate publicity for rugby union in Australia.

“Some of his recent feuds with the Australian media have created controversy and a lot of headlines, but the flip side is that he has got people talking about rugby in the country, people are engaged and interested in what is going on.”

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