England's Australian rugby coach Eddie Jones is under siege from the press and fighting calls for his head following an "unacceptable" fifth place finish in the Six Nations.
The cantankerous Jones led England to the final of the 2019 Rugby World Cup but results have been on the decline since.
Former England five-eighth Stuart Barnes led the media pack, penning a strong column in The Times titled: 'Eddie Jones is the Donald Trump of rugby, and this out-of-control ego show has England in terminal decline.'
Barnes started off by scoffing at Jones' "erratic claim" that the rugby press were "poisoning his team," before making comparisons with the former US president.
"Jones, the head coach, rules, with his unpleasant assertions and overwhelming quest to turn the game into a funereal dirge," Barnes wrote.
https://twitter.com/EnglandRugby/status/1373367660013051905?s=20
"Donald Trump-like, he quips his offensive accusations. Just as the Republican Party's already damaged reputation shattered during Trump's presidency, so the image of the RFU, Jones's employers, is taking a hit.
"Jones unleashed is not funny or witty. Recent evidence suggests his verbal blasts are not relieving players of pressure. It's an ego show out of control… England becoming "the best team in the history of rugby union" is only one of the outlandish comments he threw, post-World Cup, to the wind. Like the former US president, the theory is that if enough rubbish is spouted, we'll forget most of it."
Jones, the former Wallabies boss, is the best paid coach in world rugby and is contracted to England through to the 2023 Rugby World Cup.
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https://twitter.com/SixNationsRugby/status/1374104524030369794?s=20
But the blowtorch is intense after losing to Scotland, Wales and Ireland while beating only France and Italy.
"The Australian's idea of a rugby brain is someone who will follow a one-dimensional game plan over the edge of a cliff," Barnes claimed.
"It may be that the Australian coach is fooling the media, even as he works to keep the rat poison out of his side's system…
"Enough is enough. Nothing comes from nothing. And England are travelling nowhere. The cost of keeping Jones is too great a burden."
Another former England international, Austin Healey, also said it was time for Jones to go after six years in the hot seat.
In a column for The Telegraph, Healey said the 61-year-old was a great coach but it was simply time for a fresh voice and new ideas after reaching a "crossroads."
"It is not a question of whether anyone coming in could do any better, it's a question of whether anyone would do any worse," Healey wrote.
"It's not hard to do better than Eddie's done this year – if my teenage daughters had been in charge during the Six Nations, would England have finished any differently?
"There is no disputing that Eddie is a great rugby coach – his track record speaks for itself. But these are cumulative problems; the players have been in that squad so long that they don't forget things that have been said…
"If you looked at the trajectory of Eddie's England coaching career, it would look like the Big Dipper. Are you on an upwards curve with a Six Nations Grand Slam leading to a World Cup final? Or are you on the downwards slope where everyone is screaming, 'Let me off'?
"Eddie's rollercoaster has dipped too low, too many times – it's now time for him to get off."
After the latest 32-18 defeat at the weekend against Ireland, Jones received vigorous support from his players, including star lock Maro Itoje who described him as a "truly special coach."
But Rugby World Cup-winning coach Sir Clive Woodward – who beat Jones' Australia in the 2003 final – wrote a critical column in The Mail on Sunday.
"It's time for Eddie Jones to look in the mirror, not the window. Somebody at the RFU — although I'm not sure who is qualified to do so — needs to ask some sharp questions of him. There is no respected rugby 'brain' asking the difficult questions.
"What's going on? Why have England just finished fifth in the Six Nations, one place above Italy? Why have England produced only one decent performance in this tournament? Why are England Six Nations also-rans? Why is the England team not reflective of the fantastic talent we see every week in the Premiership?
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