England coach Eddie Jones assures better communication with clubs after training camp row
Eddie Jones' England side will face South Africa, Fiji, Argentina and Australia during the autumn
©PA
England head coach Eddie Jones has assured better communication between the national team and English Premiership clubs following infamous training camp in Brighton earlier this month where Wasps’s Sam Jones sustained a leg injury during a judo session and Bath’s Anthony Watson fractured his jaw in a rugby session.
Jack Nowell too returned to Exeter with a thigh injury which resulted in significant amount of dissent among the Aviva Premiership directors of rugby, who blamed the red rose coach Jones.
Jones expressed satisfaction after meeting the directors of rugby and assured commitment to the clubs to share medical information related to the players.
“I had a good meeting with the directors of rugby,” Jones said.
“We had two unfortunate injuries at the camp — that is part of rugby — and out of that meeting came a couple of things that need to happen.
“We need to communicate better with the clubs and we have taken that on board.
“We also need to have a better and more rigorous medical communication in and out of the clubs and in and out of the international side. We are both committed to that which I think will help the player welfare.
“It was a very positive meeting. We are always going to have our ups and downs, but I think generally there is a commitment from everyone to want to make the players better.”
Exeter’s head coach Rob Baxter, who was informed Nowell had “soreness and tightness” while he had a critical injury, has acknowledged that communication was at the center of the discussions.
“It’s not for me or any of the other Premiership coaches to control Eddie Jones as regards the content of his training sessions,” said Baxter.
“We have all taken some pretty physical, brutal training sessions – sometimes that is what you need to do – but the issue was a little bit more on some clear communication on how much was going to be done and to report how much did get done. That was the issue.”
England are scheduled to face the Springboks, Fiji, the Pumas and, the Wallabies on consecutive Saturdays, starting on November 12.
