England coach Eddie Jones wants to coach Test rugby from the sidelines in the same way that football managers operate.

Jones – always contrary, outlandish and eccentric in his approach compared to his peers – says he adopted a similar role during his time as Japan head coach and feels patrolling the sidelines is beneficial.

Speaking to England performance director Conor O’Shea in the latest episode of ‘The Eddie Jones Podcast’, he confirmed he is considering spending the first half in the ‘normal’ position set aside for head coaches in the main stand but he hopes to get closer to the action during the second half of games.

‘Ideally, if you could, you would do the first half in the stand to look at the patterns of play, what tactically are they trying to do and where can you expose them in the second half, which a lot of times is more about emotion, digging deep and you could add some value on the side of the pitch,’ Jones said.

There are some negatives to this sort of approach, including putting coaches closer to crowds and open to verbal abuse, but Jones believes that copying football is a natural progression for rugby.

‘I was lucky enough when I coached in Japan to coach on the side of the pitch and you could definitely have an influence on certain teams and you see that with football managers.

‘Having that balance of being able to get how the game is evolving and then add something to the emotional side of the game could make it quite interesting.’

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