Eddie Jones will survive to fight another day as England head coach.
The Aussie has received the backing of the English RFU despite a disastrous Six Nations campaign which saw them finish second-from-bottom in the table.
England registered defeats to Scotland, Wales and - on the closing weekend - Ireland at the Aviva Stadium.
A Grand Slam-spoiling victory over France could not prevent Jones from being subject of a review from the higher-ups at the RFU.
RFU board members, executives and independent experts were all part of the debrief, alongside feedback from players, coaches (past and present) and support staff as well as detailed presentations from Jones himself.
The following were listed as contributing factors to England's Six Nations failure:
Coaching: the absence of Jason Ryles and Neil Craig were a significant loss in coaching expertise and team support, this had a significant impact on the wider coaching team. The initial unavailability of Matt Proudfoot and isolation of Eddie Jones also had an affect on the effectiveness of the coaching team.
Player preparation and availability: several players did not have enough game time going into the Guinness Six Nations. Conversely a wider group were fatigued as a result of being the only country to have back-to-back seasons; resulting in players having no mental break from one season to the next. In addition, a handful of notable players were unavailable.
Breakdown indiscipline: improvements required including lower body strength and appropriate skill modifications.
COVID-19: the necessary stringent protocols, in some cases greater than other Unions, had a significant impact on coaching and support staff as well as the playing squad cohesion.
Squad transition: the agreed protocols, which the RFU and Eddie were fully supportive of due to Covid challenges, meant fixed squads prevented players coming in and out during the campaign as they would normally.
Following the debrief, Jones said, "During the Guinness Six Nations we were not up to our usual high standards and we recognise that.
"The debrief was a valuable process, we all learned a lot from the experience and most importantly we have identified actions to enable the team to move forward positively towards 2023.
"I’m looking forward to the summer tour which will provide a great opportunity to see more of our emerging talent and I’m confident our next team will come back stronger this autumn building up to a winning performance in the next Six Nations.”
RFU chief executive Bill Sweeney added, "We were all disappointed to finish fifth in the Guinness Six Nations.
"Our track record and results under Eddie meant that we, the players and our fans had much higher expectations.
"Sport is all about fine margins which is why every campaign debrief is invaluable in helping us to learn and improve.
"Eddie approached this review with a great deal of self-awareness and humility, allowing us to look at every aspect of the tournament to identify every small change we can make in order to improve.”
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