Former England flyhalf Danny Cipriani has blasted Eddie Jones on X following the Australian’s remarks this week about the Rugby Football Union (RFU) and the quality of players it produces.
Despite his own profound problems with the Wallabies since taking over earlier this year, Jones has pointed the finger at the RFU for England’s current malaise. Jones, who’s never been short of a soundbite, took the opportunity to have yet another pop at his former employers in a radio interview in the UK.
“It’s a difficult situation, like you’ve got an ageing team,” Jones told BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme. “Anyone who knows anything about sport can see that and then you’ve got new players coming in. Some of them have come through and done really well, like a Freddie Steward, others are still finding their feet, like a Marcus Smith.
“You look at the results of England over the last five years but they’re not producing quality players.
“And so everyone looks at the head coach and let’s blame the head coach. But the onus on producing quality players is the RFU and that hasn’t happened.”
Cipriani has taken issue with Jones’ attack on the RFU, labelling his comments a ‘cop out’ and accusing his former boss of running England further into the ground.
“What an unbelievable cop out. Once again… As the head coach of England you set the standard to follow, not by winning, by being a leader people look up to or admire, being accountable and inspiring a nation through your vision.
“Not by belittling employees, running through staff, having a limited understanding of the game and getting hired because the RFU don’t know what they are looking for hence why they employed Eddie. RFU have a huge role to play but Eddie passing the buck is not news.
“Rugby needs to make a change in this country,” wrote Cipriani. “Eddie ran it further into the ground from a shocking 2015 W/C exit. If getting to the World Cup final in 2019 or even winning it in 2003 was enough to expand the game then that’s what would have happened.
“RFU have a huge role to play, it’s not a serious business. Selling Twickenham out is not difficult. Only when they don’t will they think to look in the mirror… He [Eddie Jones] got employed by those people who don’t know how to identify talent because they fell for his chat.”
Cipriani won a handful of caps under Jones but was never able to convince the fiery Aussie that he was right for the team.
