You never want to see your name followed by the phrase “compared to Donald Trump.”
That’s never a good day.
But England rugby coach Eddie Jones is having just that kind of afternoon as Scotland legend Jim Telfer has noticed a similarity between Jones and the recently inaugurated President of the United States.
Jones has become one of the most polarising figures among non-England rugby fans in recent years and, to be fair, Telfer makes a valid point with his reasoning for comparing Jones to the man who has dominated the front pages of newspapers for months on end.
Jones’ success, like Trump’s, cannot be questioned as the results of both speak for themselves but it is the manner in which both carry themselves that has earned the ire of Telfer, who made the comparison ahead of the opening Six Nations weekend.
It is the frequent lack of respect and class, coupled with the aggressive ruthlessness and desire to win at all costs, of both men that most stands out for the Scotsman, as well as their shared enjoyment of dominating the headlines.
“Eddie Jones doesn’t want to beat teams, he wants to demolish them, which I find a bit disappointing,” Telfer told the BBC. “To me, he’s building his whole team on set-piece and the building of the attack comes secondary. Having coached Australia and Japan you would have thought the opposite would be the case. The way he speaks, it’s a bit like Donald Trump. He wants to be the big man, you know?
“His goal is to win the World Cup in 2019 and so far it’s gone well, but I think he could be a little more circumspect, show a bit more respect for the opposition. He doesn’t seem to show much respect and it could come back to bite him.
“Twickenham, I find intimidating, the whole atmosphere is intimidating, there’s so many of them, three tiers of them. If you ever think about wanting separation from England just sit 10 minutes in Twickenham and listen to them.
“They think they’re superior and a lot of them will come from the south-east, bags of money and bags of this and bags of that. They don’t really appreciate the other team. In France they just boo the other team, in Argentina they boo the other team, in England it’s just disdain. ‘Why are we playing these plebs?’ I don’t like Twickenham; a concrete jungle, nothing attractive about it at all.”
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