Eddie Jones non-compete clause

[califauna]

Hi,

Anyone know if Eddie Jones has a non-compete clause (or something equivalent) in his contract preventing him from consulting with or coaching another national team until after WC 2023 if he were to be released before then by the RFU?

Thanks.

 

[Lé Ddanno]

Hi,

Anyone know if Eddie Jones has a non-compete clause (or something equivalent) in his contract preventing him from consulting with or coaching another national team until after WC 2023 if he were to be released before then by the RFU?

Thanks.

Given that he's been acting as a consultant to Japan in the recent past, I doubt it. It doesn't really seem like a thing in sport anyway

 

[califauna]

I've never heard of one either. Without one preventing him coaching another tier one team it seems unthinkable to me that RFU would terminate his contract before WC given the monumental strategic advantage it would hand to however he went and coached/consulted with, but all that doesn't seem to stop the journos talking up Jones being fired if England lose remaining 6N matches. I imagine they are mainly baiting the pessimists/Jones haters there but still raises the question in my mind.

 

[Ragey Erasmus]

I've never heard of one either. Without one preventing him coaching another tier one team it seems unthinkable to me that RFU would terminate his contract before WC given the monumental strategic advantage it would hand to however he went and coached/consulted with, but all that doesn't seem to stop the journos talking up Jones being fired if England lose remaining 6N matches. I imagine they are mainly baiting the pessimists/Jones haters there but still raises the question in my mind.

Although it's rare to fire a coach close to a WC, look what happened when SA did it. If England finish 5th, it will be our worst run in the 6N ever.

 

[Leonormous Boozer]

Farrell had one, he was forced to coach Munster as a result. Poor *******.

 

[califauna]

OK so that's interesting. Farrel was indeed prevented from coaching other national teams for 5 months after Jones sacked everyone when Stuart Lancaster resigned after the 2015 WC.

The financial cost to RFU of terminating Eddie Jones' contract at this point must be enormous, especially if there were a non-compete clause given there are still 18 months until WC 2023, but the above suggests that such a clause is possible in theory.

Even with such a clause, in the event of EJ becoming a free agent it doesn't seem that hard to imagine interesting information making its way across the dinner table after a few glasses of red at Dave Rennie's house, so still kinda hard for me to see him going anywhere personally.

 

[Don't Skip Leg Day]

Imagine asking Jones for secret info on England.

What are England's special backs moves

Jones: we don't have any mate

What are englands tactics

Jones: I tell them to kick the ball all the time mate

What's your defensive structure

Jones: just go wide around our defence like every team does mate

 

[wombles]

I for one have no problem with Eddie Jones being offloaded. Yes he may well have certain insights into us, but a new coaching era and their approaches will rapidly diminish that benefit. How much more damage, baffling decisions - "we're not going to show our attacking game until the World Cup…players can play anywhere…we can win the game without the ball" - continued contraction of our play, overcomplication, high coach turnover and lack of selection consistency must we have to put up with, with fast Eddie before the RFU finally realise he is not up to the job.

Even yesterday you heard Eddie Jones scapegoating by mentioning how our younger players will gain much needed experience from this. A simple sentence that deflects from his own shortcomings by implying their lack of experience contributed to the loss of the game. If Eddie Jones trusted our youth far earlier and gave them much needed experience immediately after the last World Cup they would be in a better place than they are now.

To be honest Jones doesn't even understand how important the wining the six nations, summer tours and AI's are to us, he just keeps talking about the World Cup. If he cannot understand the passion of a Calcutta cup game how can he be trusted to lead our national team?

i truly think we have a team that can compete with anyone and win things, however Jones is the hand break. I know the defensive line is we are too close to the World Cup, however we are not going to win the next six nations or World Cup with him, so what have we got to lose?

 

[Leonormous Boozer]

I don't think it would necessarily hurt England if they offloaded Jones, not that it'll happen. Yesterday was the best I've seen them in awhile and it stemmed from a dominant scrum and an intense and accurate kick chase. A school's coach can achieve that, individual player talent just shone though for him rather than any tactics or rugby philosophy.

The only issue is that any other available coach would be a huge gamble so essentially the blazers are faced with either betting on Eddie to go better than he ever has done before despite looking stale and with no opportunity cost or betting on a wild card to do the business with the cost of offloading Eddie. The business man accepts a **** up, prepares for the loss and how to react while hoping something unforeseen can turn it around.

 

[BPM]

I think he's saved by the dearth of obvious candidates to replace him.

Gatland? Hell no. Baxter? No thanks. Borthwick? Too soon. Sanderson? No thanks. Too soon and hasn't shown up that well at Sale so far.

Scott Robertson? Maybe … if he was interested, I'd certainly be willing to have a chat with him.

Sean Edwards as head coach could be interesting. However, with him, it's hard to know whether he's just a world class defence coach or someone who can translate the quality of his coaching across the whole picture?

 

[califauna]

Can the posters who are critical of Jones please give realistic odds they would be comfortable laying if they were bookmakers, against England winning WC 2023?

 

[Ragey Erasmus]

Excluding the Italy game, England have scored TWO tries. That is just shambolic.

 

[califauna]

Well, this is what I was concerned about.

Revealed: Eddie Jones held 14-month long secret talks with Australia while with England

Exclusive: Lack of non-compete clause from RFU allowed Rugby Australia to make swift move for Eddie Jones having courted him since 2021

www.telegraph.co.uk

This is an unmitigated disaster if you are an England fan or any kind of England rugby stakeholder with an interest in WC 2023. The most experienced head coach in the game with top to bottom inside knowledge of the England set up, now set to play against them in the quarter finals and free to turn all that intellectual property against them. Wasn't too bad Borthwick replacing Jones, but it's a whole different ball game now he's with Australia.

Either he had someone on the inside at the RFU or the RFU have been played like an absolute fiddle. I suspect the former. Surely too perfect a hatchet job from an Australia point of view to all be happenstance. Conveniently box office for World Rugby as well of course if/when that match happens.

 

[Ragey Erasmus]

Well, this is what I was concerned about.

Revealed: Eddie Jones held 14-month long secret talks with Australia while with England

Exclusive: Lack of non-compete clause from RFU allowed Rugby Australia to make swift move for Eddie Jones having courted him since 2021

www.telegraph.co.uk

This is an unmitigated disaster if you are an England fan or any kind of England rugby stakeholder with an interest in WC 2023. The most experienced head coach in the game with top to bottom inside knowledge of the England set up, now set to play against them in the quarter finals and free to turn all that intellectual property against them. Wasn't too bad Borthwick replacing Jones, but it's a whole different ball game now he's with Australia.

Either he had someone on the inside at the RFU or the RFU have been played like an absolute fiddle. I suspect the former. Surely too perfect a hatchet job from an Australia point of view to all be happenstance. Conveniently box office for World Rugby as well of course if/when that match happens.

If true that, combined with England's poor performances and his stuff with Japanese club rugby show just how ******* incompetent the RFU are. They really are clueless, it's still the old boys having a bit of a jolly.

 

[TRF_Olyy]

@califauna please DM me next week's lottery numbers

 

[califauna]

Much more shady than mere incompetence this, I think. Incompetence is every journalist and shamed politician's go-to excuse for corruption. If I could see this coming from behind my laptop, the people in the RFU could see it coming.

RFU have basically been a non-profit coaching academy for England's rival nations for the last 3 years under Jones, and being an England fan an act of self-flaggelation for most people. Only mitigation would have been JOnes staying on and bringing his WC smarts, either has head coach or ideally as consultant, or leaving with an enforceable no-compete clause - and that would have been consierable mitigation - but without it it's just a cluster **** of epic proportions now. Could barely have been scripted better for maximal harm to elite level English rugby.

 

[Vieux Talonneur]

RFU did not block Eddie Jones joining rivals for ‘legal and moral’ reasons

The RFU decided against inserting a clause in Eddie Jones’s severance package to prevent him coaching England’s rivals at thie World Cup this year for ‘legal and moral’ reasons, it can be revealed

www.theguardian.com

 

[BPM]

Much more shady than mere incompetence this, I think. Incompetence is every journalist and shamed politician's go-to excuse for corruption. If I could see this coming from behind my laptop, the people in the RFU could see it coming.

RFU have basically been a non-profit coaching academy for England's rival nations for the last 3 years under Jones, and being an England fan an act of self-flaggelation for most people. Only mitigation would have been JOnes staying on and bringing his WC smarts, either has head coach or ideally as consultant, or leaving with an enforceable no-compete clause - and that would have been consierable mitigation - but without it it's just a cluster **** of epic proportions now. Could barely have been scripted better for maximal harm to elite level English rugby.

I think you're massively over-reacting TBH.

It might be different if he were making a switch on the eve on the tournament, but England will have plenty of time for Borthwick to make it his own team and render a lot of what Eddie knows as irrelevant or at least significantly out of date.

In any case, there's no guarantee that England and Australia will even face each other. If both win their groups (which is very possible) they wouldn't meet until the final. Right now, there aren't great odds for either making it that far.

 

[Saintjay]

Not keen on the idea of anyone in the work place being sacked and told they can't work any where else. You are not good enough for us but you can't find work any place else. I don't recall the Boks having a meltdown when we got Proudfoot after the WC.

Plus Eddie used half the world's supply of coaches during his tenure. Is it reasonable to say they can't work elsewhere for a year.

I also believe they can be difficult to enforce on a legal basis. Do the RFU really want a high profile legal battle with one of England's best ever coaches and the ARFU.

I'm more concerned about facing the Boks front row than what Eddie comes up with. It's not a good look if we don't think he was good enough and are now are now going to shi@ the bed because we are worried he'll beat us.

You might as well sack off the Lions. It was pretty unfair Gatland got to work with the best players in the British Isles. All the knowledge and info he has on all those top players, clearly put him at an advantage and explains those Grand Slams.

 

[Reiser99]

RFU did not block Eddie Jones joining rivals for ‘legal and moral’ reasons

The RFU decided against inserting a clause in Eddie Jones’s severance package to prevent him coaching England’s rivals at thie World Cup this year for ‘legal and moral’ reasons, it can be revealed

www.theguardian.com

Still suggests they had no idea what they were doing with the contracts.

I don't recall the Boks having a meltdown when we got Proudfoot after the WC.

Plus Eddie used half the world's supply of coaches during his tenure. Is it reasonable to say they can't work elsewhere for a year.

Slight difference is that Proudfoot left after a world cup not 1 year before one. As for the other coaches, again different. Many weren't realistically going to work in other national setups, hadn't actually been with England long or weren't that influential.

Tbh I don't care if Jones goes or not. However, it does reflect very badly on the RFU and the fact that he seems to have been negotiating with Australia since 2021 suggests that Jones either had the RFU under his thumb or they were completely naive and clueless.