Eddie Jones has arrived at Twickenham for a crunch meeting with the RFU where his fate as England manager will be sealed.
On Monday, Jones and his assistants presented their findings from the Autumn Nations Series to Sweeney, the RFU’s director of rugby performance, Conor O’Shea, and the review panellists, outlining where improvements and refinements needed to be made in the team ahead of the upcoming Six Nations. year, taking questions from those in attendance as would normally be the case at most post-test window reviews.
However, according to those close to Jones, the feeling that came out of the meeting was that the RFU had already made up their minds about his future, despite giving the head coach a hearing to outline his plans for future
“Unless he produces a British birth certificate and buys the Times, I’m not sure he’ll be fired,” a source said.
Jones, having ended a number of careers in the past, whether as players or managers, is understood to appreciate the RFU’s need to make a decision.
This calendar year was England’s worst since 2008 and their worst autumn period since 2009. England won just one of their four tests this autumn, against Japan, and suffered their worst calendar year since from 2008 with five wins in 12 tests.
Jones’ sacking follows a similar precedent set by the RFU in 2006, when Andy Robinson was relieved of his duties following autumn losses to New Zealand, Argentina and South Africa.
Sir Clive Woodward is among those who believe the decision to sack Jones was the right one, with the 2003 World Cup-winning manager saying the Australian “has been very distracted since the last World Cup and he has paid the price. He is a shadow of the Jones I raced against and whose early years with England were so successful and rightly applauded.”
Steve Borthwick is the hot favorite to replace his former boss, with the RFU believed to have sounded out the Leicester supremo earlier this year about replacing Jones after the World Cup, although this period of time has sped up a bit due to recent events.
Other candidates for the job include Crusaders manager Scott Robertson, Saracens’ Mark McCall and Rob Baxter at Exeter.
Follow our live coverage of all the reaction to Jones’ sacking, news on potential candidates to replace him and updates and analysis from Telegraph Sport pundits.