Care’s whistleblowing on Jones's 'dictatorship' raises serious questions for English rugby

Danny Care's depiction of the England rugby team environment during Eddie Jones's time as head coach makes the judgment of those who reappointed him for a second stint (before finally sacking him in December 2022) all the more questionable.

England's Danny Care and head coach Eddie Jones before a 2016 Six Nations match against Italy. Picture: ©INPHO/Billy Stickland

It has taken a while to trickle out but the full and frank verdict of the players is finally in. “It was like living in a dictatorship,” writes Danny Care in his new autobiography, Everything Happens for a Reason, serialised in the Sunday Times. “Remember what it felt like when someone was being bullied at school and you were just glad it wasn’t you? That was the vibe.” 

The England regime to which he was referring – shock, horror – was that of Eddie Jones. According to Care, Jones’s players felt “like characters in a dystopian novel” at times. “Everything’s a test,” they would whisper to each other, trying to steel themselves for whatever was about to follow. “Did Eddie rule by fear?” asks Care rhetorically, at one point. “Of course he did, everyone was bloody terrified of him.”