Eddie Jones, the England head coach, has questioned the leadership culture of sporting teams who require strict curfews or whose players drink excessively. The Australian said that if his own captain had ended up in a similar situation to England’s Wayne Rooney last weekend he would feel he had selected the wrong man.
English rugby has had its well-publicised drunken late-night issues, not least during the 2011 Rugby World Cup, but since Jones took control there have been no problems, with all players trusted to act professionally. The experienced Jones said: “Most teams I’ve had have never set curfews. I generally like the players to set the regulations because then it is self-policing.
“They are professional sportsmen who have the privilege of playing for England. They have to do everything to be at their best for England. If they do anything outside of that, then they don’t want to play for England.”
Asked how he would react to a Rooney‑style episode he replied: “Well, then I’ve got the wrong captain and the wrong vice-captains.”
Jones declined to comment specifically on the Manchester United player’s conduct but does have firm views on alcohol consumption in and around matches. “It’s up to each individual to work it out,” he said. “I know some of the best players in the world drink every night and have been absolutely outstanding. But that’s the exception. Most players don’t drink during the week.
“In Japan we had some naughty boys ... Japanese love to have a drink. But again, they wanted to play for Japan, they wanted to change Japanese rugby and to do that you have to make sacrifices. Rather than go to the third nightclub, you come home. That’s the decision you have to make.
“Every player is different; we’ve got players in this group who have transgressed. If they transgress again, they’ll be in trouble. We’ve got players with perfect records. Everyone makes a mistake so everything is looked at individually. We don’t have any set rules or regulations about how we treat them.”
England’s captain, Dylan Hartley, confirmed that he also had faith in his players to conduct themselves properly. “We police ourselves and we trust individuals to make the right decisions. That is how our team operate,” he said.
“We don’t have an A4 sheet with rules written on it. We just trust the guys to do the right thing. Luckily we haven’t had any issues. If you treat men like men, you get men.”
Jones, meanwhile, has delayed naming his side to face Fiji on Saturday with continuing injury concerns to a number of players including the No8 Billy Vunipola. World Rugby is due to tighten the rules in January to require all sides to announce their lineups at least 48 hours before matches, England having protested last year when France waited until the eve of a World Cup warm-up game to finalise their team.
Whoever starts on Saturday, the Australian wants England to subdue Fiji’s vibrant attacking game at Twickenham. “They want to have a kava party,” Jones said. “We don’t want to have a kava party, we want to eat fish and chips. We will be making sure we eat fish and chips on Saturday.”
