One game down and Eddie Jones is off the mark as England rugby coach.
He saw his side beat Scotland on Saturday to claim the Calcutta Cup at Murrayfield, after a less than impressive performance from his charges in a 15-9 win.
Still, a win is a win as anyone at Stoke City will tell you.
Fans at the Britannia were used to grinding out results under Tony Pulis until the arrival of Mark Hughes seemed to change all that.
But old perceptions are hard to eradicate it seems, and in the build up to this weekend’s Six Nations opener, Jones had a needless (and outdated) dig at the football that Stoke City used to play when describing the attritional style of rugby he’s hoping to avoid with the Red Rose.
“Every time you attack there is a risk involved. If you want to play like the old Stoke City, then that’s the safest way to play, isn’t it? Just stick the ball in the air, chase hard and get everyone to clap.”
His remarks went down very badly with Stoke City captain Ryan Shawcross, who used the programme notes before the 3-0 loss at home to Everton, to hit back at Jones’ comments:
‘I reckon he should stick to talking about the sport he’s paid to work in rather than dipping his toe in the world of football.
‘Why bring our name into a conversation about rugby? Stick to what you know would be my advice. Rant over!”
Shawcross is of course suggesting that players such as Xherdan Shaqiri, Bojan Krkic and Marko Arnautovic do not play long ball football, and that Jones’ comments are embarrassingly out of date.
