Source: Jones resigns from England defence coach role

England’s men’s team suffered further upheaval after defence coach Felix Jones resigned from the job in what will be a huge blow to Steve Borthwick.

Jones arrived at England from South Africa having helped them to back-to-back Rugby World Cup titles. He made his mark early on England, introducing their new-look blitz defence, but after 10 months in the job, Jones has resigned, a source confirmed to ESPN.

Jones has a 12-month notice period so the resignation isn’t effective immediately but it does cause a monumental headache for Borthwick. This is yet another high profile departure this summer after their head of strength and conditioning Aled Walters left England to join Andy Farrell’s Ireland. He was joined in leaving England by Tom Tombleson, a long-serving member of the conditioning staff.

There is also ongoing uncertainty over what role Kevin Sinfield will take heading forward. He moved into a skills coach role when Jones arrived and was set to step down after England’s tour of Japan and New Zealand but he may yet stay on.

So that leaves two full-time coaches on Borthwick’s staff – attack coach Richard Wigglesworth and scrum coach Tom Harrison, alongside consultant Andrew Strawbridge. It’s a suboptimal situation for Borthwick as England prepare for their end of year Tests with New Zealand, Australia, South Africa and Japan coming to Twickenham.