Eddie Jones last night insisted he is not a ‘brutal employer’ - before confirming plans to play Marcus Smith and Owen Farrell together.
England’s rugby boss was reacting to an article in which former England backroom staff and players were quoted anonymously explaining why it was so hard to work for him.
“Am I a brutal employer? The fact I’ve been coaching for this period of time would indicate that that’s not the truth,” said the Australian.
“Has there been a high turnover of staff? There’s been a turnover in certain areas where we’ve looked to refresh the staff. This is my sixth year in the job and you’d expect that from your support staff.
Jones has got through numerous attack and defence coaches during a tenure in which England have won three Six Nations titles and reached a World Cup final.
“Everyone has an opinion about how you operate, I can’t say whether it’s right or wrong,” he told BT Sport. “I just try to be a reasonable person.
“I’ve coached for a fair period of time and there’s probably been times I haven’t been as nice as I’d like to be, but I endeavour to be fair all the time.
“It’s part of the game: you’re either very good or you’re very poor. At the moment in the media I’m seen to be very poor. I’ve just got to cop it.
“The only thing you can do is respond. And the only way to respond is by playing good rugby and that’s what we intend to do.”
To that end he intends to pair Smith and Farrell at 10 and 12 in a twin playmaking role - even though that means cutting in-form Leicester fly-half George Ford.
"We know George is a good player.," said Jones. "We’ve asked him to have a look at a couple of things in his game to make him even better.
"I think he’s doing that. He’s playing behind a dominant forward pack at Leicester. He’s playing well.
"But. we're keen to give Marcus and Owen the opportunity to play at 10 and 12 and see where they can go and take our game. We’re keen to have a look at what they can do together.”
* England underlined their number one status by thrashing New Zealand 43-12 ahead of next year’s Women’s Rugby World Cup.
Abbie Ward (2), Ellie Kildunne, Lark Davies, Holly Aitchison, Abbie Dow and Zoe Harrison scored tries at Sandy Park in the Red Roses’ biggest ever win over the Black Ferns.
“We exceeded what we thought we were going to do,” admitted player of the match Harrison. “But we’ve got them again next week so we can't get complacent.”
