Former England boss Eddie Jones once berated a coach in public, only to later apologise with what appeared to be a peace offering—a steak.
However, when the coach arrived home and opened the bag, he discovered sausages and a note that read, “You’re not ready for steak. You’re a sausage. Up your game.”
This story, originally shared on the RugbyPass Offload podcast, was recounted by Wasps legend Joe Simpson. He described how the assistant coach was initially deceived into thinking Jones was making amends after publicly reprimanding him for a mistake during training.
Simpson said: “He’s given a coach an absolute rollicking in a meeting before, earlier in the day.
“[Jones] calls him up later on and is like, ‘look, I want to apologise to you, the way I spoke to you, blah blah blah, in front of everyone in front of the coaches meeting’. He [the coach] was like, ‘fair enough’.
“[Jones said] ‘I bought you a steak. You take it home and you eat it with your missus, you enjoy yourself’ – just an apology.
“The bloke goes home and says to his wife, ‘that was bizarre, he’s given me a steak’. So they get it out and there’s just a pack of sausages in there.
“He thinks that’s weird and gets a text from [Jones] later being like: ‘You’re not ready for steak, you’re a sausage. Up your game’.
“He’s like, ‘how do I carry on this job if I’m getting abused by my boss?’ But if you look at the turnover he’s had in coaches, if coaches want to get out of their contract they can go to HR and say, ‘these are all the emails and text messages that I’ve got from Eddie, I want to get out of this contract immediately, and they’ll be like, ‘oh, ok, we’ll keep it hush, you can leave slightly earlier if you want’.”
Eddie Jones named his five worst England call-ups, he wasn’t impressed with Ollie Lawrence
From the era of Curry and Underhill, to the dynamic duo of Itoje and Genge, Eddie Jones had exhibited remarkable skill in selecting the ideal players across the pitch since assuming the helm in 2015.
Nevertheless, not every player he called up managed to make a lasting impact.
#5. Denny Solomona
His England career began with the definition of a ‘bang’ – a dream first run out in the England shirt, he came off the bench to score a last-minute winner in a dramatic 38-34 win against Argentina in San Juan on June 10, 2017.
Jones said: “There’s something about him, he finds the [try] line and you like wingers who find the line. I think he’s got that X factor, whatever you want to call it.”
However, two months later, Solomona was sent home from England’s training camp in disgrace after returning drunk to the team hotel. The winger would win just three more caps, failing to score in any of them with Jones questioning the speedster’s character. Not what we all expected after a stunning debut.
RUCK VERDICT: He has vowed to put his off-field problems behind him. His Premiership form before lockdown earned him some admirers – time for an international recall? You never know.
