Inside Eddie Jones' last 48 hours as England head coach

“You’ll have to ask the RFU. You’ll have to ask the RFU.”

Out of a wound-down back-seat window, pointing a finger from his taxi up at the offices above him, Eddie Jones rasped one last, restrained retort as he left Twickenham at around 10.15am on a crisp and cloudless December morning. There had been a final act of defiance, though, as one might have expected.

Words hold weight in press releases and it is understood that the Rugby Football Union were initially eager to state that they had “parted ways” with Jones. They needed a second draft. Jones insisted that the statement should explicitly outline that his contract had been terminated.

In the end, “dismissed” was evidently settled upon. Sources close to Jones have indicated that Bill Sweeney, the RFU chief executive, and Conor O’Shea, the union’s director of performance, asked the outgoing head coach to inform the players. Jones is said to have refused, leaving that awkward task to Sweeney and O’Shea.

When the press release was published and circulated at 11.30am, the quote attributed to Jones felt telling: “I am pleased with much that we have achieved as an England team and I look forward to watching the team’s performance in the future. Many of the players and I will no doubt keep in touch and I wish them well in their future careers.” Clearly, he cared about the team he had overseen for seven years and was desperate to be at the next World Cup. Jones wanted that to come through in his public sign-off.

Days previously, while ominous rumblings about his future intensified, he had been across The Channel on a reconnaissance mission ahead of the 2023 World Cup. We know how these tournaments light a fire in Jones from his exploits with Australia, South Africa, Japan and England in 2003, 2007, 2015 and 2019, respectively.

While there has been plenty of relief voiced at his removal, others have expressed their frustration at its timing. At precisely 10.32am on Tuesday, some 58 minutes before official confirmation came, Matt Giteau, the Wallaby great and a protege of Jones, weighed in via Twitter.

“If Eddie Jones gets sacked, it would have to be the silliest thing they could do to the English rugby team,” posted Giteau. “He plans and plans and plans years in advance for this competition. It’s the one thing that he has got consistently right time and again. Big mistake imo [in my opinion].”

Eventually, of course, Jones’ promises of World Cup glory – or even World Cup competence – jarred too hard with what England were serving up. Despite having robustly backed their man through the earlier stumbles of 2021 and 2022, Sweeney and O’Shea decided enough was enough. The boos that greeted South Africa’s 27-13 victory on November 26 will have been a significant factor. Acute displeasure among supporters, when others are growing apathetic, is unsustainable.

Jones’ exit, after a spin around the turning circle next to the 27ft-tall lineout sculpture on the south stand piazza, capped a frantic few days in English rugby union that had started last Friday evening. It was then that whispers arose about an imminent approach from the RFU to Leicester Tigers over Steve Borthwick.

Jones’ review was in the diary for the following Monday, and had been since a rather ominous message from Sweeney the lunchtime after the Springboks had laid siege to Twickenham. Already, the mood music was growing more sombre.

At Ashton Gate on Saturday night, Borthwick took charge of Leicester in a Premiership outing against Bristol Bears. It could yet be his last league fixture as head coach of the famous East Midlands club. The hosts scored two eye-catching tries in the first half, but Borthwick’s champions were excellent thereafter and opened up a 26-12 advantage with 15 minutes remaining.

As it happened, Tigers botched the restart on the back of Freddie Burns’ third penalty and invited pressure onto themselves. Ellis Genge, perhaps a candidate to captain England under Borthwick as he led Leicester last season, was clocked by Francois van Wyk in a high tackle that brought about a red card. Bears scored twice more and could have snatched an epic comeback victory, rather than a 26-26 draw, had AJ MacGinty’s late penalty not faded short and wide.

Topically, Borthwick had selected a starting backline made up entirely of England internationals: Ben Youngs, Burns, Anthony Watson, Dan Kelly, Guy Porter, Chris Ashton and Freddie Steward. You wondered which of them might win more caps if Borthwick were to replace Jones prior to the Six Nations. It was clear then that such an outcome was on the cards, as had been revealed by Telegraph Sport.

Borthwick, however, was never likely to entertain a question about speculation linking him to Twickenham. He has not inherited a holster full of zingers from his mentor. But it had to be asked anyway, and Borthwick seemed genuinely unaware of the possibility that Jones could be gone within 72 hours. “Club coaches are always in contact with the RFU,” he said. “We’ve got a big contingent of England players, so I am always talking to them about our players and that’s my focus.”

In fairness, Leicester had not been contacted by the RFU by that stage and would not receive an approach until Tuesday afternoon. Sunday brought murmurings that Jones would be doing his utmost in his review, and remained motivated to lead England into a World Cup year. He was, however, said to be increasingly resigned that the axe would fall.

Monday afternoon, in the hours after Warren Gatland was unveiled as the incoming head coach of Wales, staged the decisive meetings and it is understood that England’s set-piece frailties, exposed against Argentina, New Zealand and then South Africa, received plenty of scrutiny.

Discussions lasted until around 5pm. When darkness had descended, Jones’ team of assistants are thought to have departed together, separately from the top man himself. O’Shea and Sweeney, lead members of the panel receiving feedback from the England coaching team, followed within the hour. Very quickly, at around 7pm, reports began circling. Jones needed to attend an additional meeting on Tuesday morning at around 9.30am. He was unconvinced that his presentation had been sufficient.

Jones returned and emerged from Rugby House on to Whitton Road just before 10am on Tuesday. Wearing a faint grin and holding a briefcase, he headed to one final meeting, on the table adjacent to an exuberantly decorated Christmas tree, in the glass-fronted Formation Bar of the Marriott hotel. Just before 10.15am, a black Mercedes pulled up. Jones jogged to the vehicle, winding down the window to field the query about his future. And then he was gone.

A fateful morning witnessed more comings and goings. Matt Proudfoot, the England scrum coach, left about an hour after Jones. Danny Kerry, the recently appointed training coordinator, and Will Carling, the former England captain, were spotted together some time later.

By then, about midday, Richard Cockerill was in situ as caretaker – or, to use the RFU’s carefully worded statement, the figure who will “take over the day-to-day running of the men’s performance team”. The lack of an official title is presumably because the Borthwick coup will be finalised quickly. Semantics are important, as Jones well knows.