Ben Foden Exclusive: ‘Winning the changing room back over is what England needed’
Ben Foden retired from professional rugby 12 months ago
©Peter Marney
After the dismissal of Eddie Jones as England head coach following a poor Autumn Nations Series and 2022 campaign, former England international Ben Foden says that he felt that change was overdue for the national team.
In this calendar year, England have played 12 games and won just five. To conclude their year, in the Autumn Nations Series Eddie Jones’ side were subjected to a 13-27 loss at the hands of South Africa, the boos from the crowd at Twickenham Stadium setting the tone for the days that have led to the Australian’s axing by the RFU.
Having look uninspired and without motivation at times across November, it was announced on the day after defeat to the Springboks that the RFU’s review panel would meet to dissect England’s shortcomings, that panel coming to the conclusion that it was Jones’ time to depart as head coach.
It is a move that has divided opinion with just 10 months to go until the 2023 rugby World Cup in France, while others believed that it was time for change. One of those whose mind is of the latter is Ben Foden, the 34-cap full-back believing that the time was right for England to pull the trigger and move on.
“I think that something needed to happen,” Foden said. “First off, results are not good enough. Especially for this group of players as well, because they are very talented. There is a good blend of youth, and something is just not quite right.
“Eddie brought the best out of the guys in the first four years of his tenure, when he took England to the World Cup final in 2019, and when you look where that team was going into the World Cup, we are a long way off it.
“If you look at some of the players – I don’t know, because you are never going to get honesty from the guys involved in that England fold at the moment. Because they want to play for England, so they are never going to say, ‘I don’t get on with Eddie’ or ‘I don’t agree with this’ because Eddie was very ‘if you don’t get on my wavelength, you are gone’.
“I listened to Ellis Genge talk on a podcast, but you can never expect him to be completely honest. I know people will say Ellis Genge is that, but he wants to play for England, and he gets paid a lot of money to play for England, so he knows if he wants to continue to play for England, he needs Eddie Jones on his side.
“Now he [Jones] is gone, maybe he will change what he says. Maybe he won’t, maybe he’ll stick to it, but it was always unfair to ask the players who were involved behind closed doors with Eddie what it was like and where the problems were, because that is not their responsibility.
“Their responsibility is to go there, play, play to the best of their ability, train and bring out the best in the players around them. It is the coach’s responsibility to manage them as players and I just feel that the guys on the field were not playing with confidence and they weren’t doing things that they do with their club, where they play with smiles on their faces.
“It just seemed to me like they were playing to keep the shirt, rather than to express themselves and be the best rugby team in the world. Eddie Jones is a very unique character of the game, and he does bring the best out of certain players; Dylan Hartley is one of my really good friends, who is forever grateful for what Eddie did to him and what Eddie asked him to do, he delivered as captain.
“I think for these young players, they are coming into an environment where they are very unsure about how to act, and they are very unsure on how to express themselves on the field. Because if they don’t do what Eddie is looking for, they are frightened to death that if they get dropped, they won’t be picked again.
“When you have a campaign that’s run over the year and you have only won five of 12 games, people have got to start asking questions. Eddie has done great things for English rugby.
“He has got a 73 per cent win ratio which is pretty good, but I think bringing someone else in, someone fresh and mix things up and reinstall that sort of faith and win the changing room back over is what England needed.”
On Monday afternoon, BT Sport reshared an interview with Eddie Jones as he began his time with England. In that clip, the 62-year-old spoke about how he stayed too long with Australia and should have moved on sooner. There is an irony to those comments now with Jones removed from his post seven years after being named as Stuart Lancaster’s successor.
As time has gone on, more has emerged about Jones’ style of leadership. Ruling with an iron fist, The Times reported last night that the Australian brought Saracens back Max Malins to tears during the Six Nations before dropping him from the England squad to take on France in the final game of the tournament.
It points to Jones losing the changing room to a certain degree, as well as things simply just having gone on too long.
“There are cases where you get really good coaches who can coach a team for 12, 16 years, but with England – I know everyone says in 2019 we had a good World Cup, for anyone who is really passionate about the game and has been inside the England fold and knows what it is like, England should be winning World Cups often,” Foden said.
“The last one we won was in 2003 and for me it has been too long since 2003. We should be winning another one with the resources and the talent pool and how good the Premiership is. We should be in the semi-finals, finals or winning World Cups.
“I think it went on too long. Again, I think that Eddie Jones signed the contract with the RFU off the back of reaching the World Cup final and did a four year deal which would take him past the next World Cup. Which, for me, is madness. I just think it is too long. Any contract for that is too long.
“As a player, you are always told two years is what you are going to get. Unless you are a very special case. Same thing for coaches. The thing is, in coaching it can be exactly the same as a player. You do two years and things aren’t working out, it doesn’t mean you are a bad coach. It just means it isn’t working.
“So, terminate that, let them go and coach somewhere else. This game is all about learning. As a coach and a player, you are constantly learning from those around you, from the rule changes, new players, people coming in with new nutrition, people getting stronger and faster, new laws at the breakdown and as coaches, sometimes you get that mix wrong and it doesn’t mean your career is over.
“It is like players who go to one club, don’t do very well, go to another and excel. Someone like Zach Mercer would be a prime example. He was doing well at Bath and was on the fringes [of England] and then he moves to France and is player of the year.
“Same as Nick Abendanon; was playing great and wasn’t in the England mix. He was playing well at Bath, but then he went to Clermont, and he just ripped it up. Sometimes you need a change of scenery, you just need the fresh perspective and I just think the same with coaches. You need to mix things up, upset the status quo.
“It happened to us at Northampton Saints with Jim Mallinder and Dorian West and all of us players as well, we took our foot off the throttle and just became a little bit stuck in the sand.”
What comes next for England will become more apparent in the coming days. Assistant coach Richard Cockerill has taken on the head coaching role on an interim basis, while Leicester Tigers boss Steve Borthwick is the favourite to take on the job, with The Telegraph reporting that the RFU have opened talks with the Premiership club for the 43-year-old’s services.
Serving as an assistant coach for Jones with Japan and England, in a short space of time at Mattioli Woods Welford Road the former England captain has led the club to a Premiership crown.
Crusaders coach Scott Robertson is another favourite to take on the job, but with nine games to go until the next World Cup, there will be a clear desire for a coach with a deeper understanding of English rugby to make the transition a bit more seamless.
“Steve Borthwick, what he has done at Leicester in the last two or three seasons is remarkable, so I do very much think he is the man for the job,” Foden said.
“He’s been involved with England rugby, he’s captained England rugby, everyone who I spoke with who worked with him respects him, he is a rugby nausea, he loves it and I think he will be the guy to take the job and take this England team forward.”
