Eddie Jones responds to calls for Owen Farrell to be dropped

Rugby News
Wednesday, 17 February 2021 at 08:45
image
Eddie Jones has responded to calls to drop Owen Farrell, conceding on Tuesday that the England captain had not been living up to his own high standards.
“That’s probably a fair comment," answered Jones when questioned about Farrell's poor current form.
“There have been very few players in our team who have been at their best.
"I think Owen is one of those, he knows that, he’s working very hard to get his game back to the standard that he wants and we want and there’s no doubt he’ll get back there.”
However, Jones has backed Farrell to recapture his finest form, starting with their trip to Wales in two weeks time.
He added: “For every player it’s different, look, it (Saracens) could be a factor, we don’t know,

EDITORS PICKS:

"There could be something going on at home, there could be something going on at his club that’s affecting him, we don’t know.
"He’s not at his best at the moment and we’re working really hard to make sure he gets to his best.”
Meanwhile, Jones offered injured Jack Willis encouragement, saying: 'There's no reason he can't come back bigger and better.'

Three players who ‘challenged’ Eddie Jones and never played again

screen shot 2021 02 17 at 084000 1

1. Danny Care

Former England start Kyran Bracken was the first person to reveal why the Quins playmaker was mysteriously frozen out of Jones plans in 2018 despite being a regular up until that point.
"He (Care) made the mistake of speaking his mind to Eddie Jones and questioning how he wanted him to play when he was playing with an England ‘B’ team against Japan in the autumn of 2018," said Bracken.
1911836
"Eddie’s response to that was ‘that’s not the attitude I want’ and he binned him from his plans."

2. Mike Brown

Brown wrote in his column: 'I'd had one of my best seasons for Quins (2018/19) with really good attacking stats (2019), but Eddie had pigeon-holed me as a defensive full-back. At the end of this meeting, he asked if I had anything I wanted to say.
mike brown eddie jones england rugby union gettyimages 513178280
"I challenged his comments that I was just a defensive full-back, saying I thought I had been adding value to the attack, with examples and stats from my season, before saying I would take away all of his points and that I would do everything I could to get into the World Cup squad.
"He did not like that I had contested what he said and went mad. He shouted: 'Well you lost the f****** ball in contact on Saturday, didn't you? That's f****** not good enough. You're not f****** doing everything you can.'"
Ultimately, Brown wouldn't be picked for the Rugby World Cup with Jones saying that his clash with teammate Ben Te'o had nothing to do with his omission. He's not been picked since.

3. Alex Goode

Jones wrote in his autobiography that the Sarries legend ‘could not match the pace and snarl of his long-term rival Mike Brown.’ 
eddie jones alex goode england training 3821090
However, according to Brown's column for the Mail Online, Goode clashed with Jones over this opinion in a heated discussion which led to him being frozen out of the squad after 2016.
The fullback then never won a recall despite being awarded the 2019 European Player of the Year award.

EDITORS PICKS:

loading

Loading