England: Chris Robshaw backs Eddie Jones to lead Red Rose into Rugby World Cup

David Skippers
Chris Robshaw and Eddie Jones England training 2017 - Alamy.jpg

Former England skipper Chris Robshaw said Eddie Jones is the best “man manager” he has ever worked with and feels the Australian is the the “right man” to lead the Red Rose into next year’s Rugby World Cup in France.

England had a disappointing Autumn Nations Series campaign as they only managed to beat Japan, with their other Tests against New Zealand and South Africa finishing in a draw and loss respectively.

Poor Test record in 2022

That meant the Red Rose finished their worst campaign since 2008 as they delivered a losing Test record for the first time since that year, with their 12 matches finishing with six defeats, one draw and five victories.

That record has put pressure on Jones ahead of the World Cup but after surviving formal RFU reviews following underwhelming Six Nations campaigns in 2021 and 2022, calls are growing for him to be relieved of his coaching duties less than 10 months out from the start of the global showpiece.

However, Robshaw is confident Jones can still do a good job as England coach and is backing him to “prove people wrong” at the World Cup.

“It was tough. I have been in these situations and the Autumn can be tough because you are playing against the best teams in the world,” Robshaw told Sky Sports at the Kerslake Robshaw Foundation launch, which Robshaw’s set up with his wife Camilla Kerslake to “support promising young people from less privileged backgrounds to further their education and career, through music and sport”.

“It is about taking your medicine and thinking, OK, in this competition and in this series, we weren’t quite good enough, but we can come back stronger.

“We also have to learn to move forward, you can’t look down on it too much because there are still positives to come from it and we need to think about how we can be better next time we meet.

“I saw a tweet earlier today saying, eight months ago, they were saying the same thing about Gareth Southgate and the England football team and now look at how they have played in this World Cup, they have been superb so far.

Right man to lead England

“In sport, things change very quickly, and I very much believe Eddie (Jones) is the right man to lead the squad, from my experience he is the best man-manager I have ever worked with and his ability to make players better and better.

“He is someone who will definitely go away and study what went right and very much importantly, what went wrong and why it didn’t work.

“He will want to go back out there and prove people wrong, and I have no doubt he is the right man.”

READ MORE: Opinion: Sacking Eddie Jones won’t solve the deep-rooted problems in English rugby