The England head coach believes he is still maturing in the role at the age of 61, as he explains in Leadership, his new book
ddie Jones laughs when I ask him if he’s ever tried therapy. Turns out I’m not the only one who has suggested it. Jones recently hired a forensic psychiatrist to work with his coaching team on their communication skills. “I don’t have therapy with her,” he says, “but I think sometimes she thinks I should.”
Not everyone who’s worked with him will agree. England have churned through a lot of assistant coaches and support staff. He sounds like an exacting boss. One former employee, who moved on from his job in Jones’ first year, once described it as like working for Napoleon, only, he guessed, with more swearing.
So does Jones have a sidekick to work with? He goes back to Steve Borthwick. “He was a great right-hand man.” But Borthwick. “Recently?” he says, “the last four or five years, I’ve been lucky to have Neil Craig.” That, and the feeling he gets in those last few moments before kick-off. “That’s the elixir, that bit where you’re never quite sure what’s going to happen, it is the thing that keeps you in it.” He had it again before. “We’ve got four young blokes on the bus and they don’t know what the game is going to be like, we’ve prepared, we’ve talked to them, the senior players have talked to them, but you actually don’t know how they’re going to handle it.
Jones is always looking for the balance between supporting his players and staff, and challenging them, between making them feel at ease, and making them feel on edge. I know from my own small experience of his charity work that Jones can also be tremendously kind, and thoughtful.
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