Not content with one Australian running the England rugby union team, a second was drafted in yesterday when Glen Ella, a former team-mate and school-mate of Eddie Jones was signed as skills and attack coach.
Ella lives in Sydney and that is not about to change. He has been signed up only on a temporary basis for the four weeks that England are in Australia this summer. After that, Jones will resume his search for the right man to be his attack coach on a permanent deal.
Bringing Ella on board seems a smart piece of work, not only because Jones knows him so well and has worked with him before, but because he will be fully acquainted with the Wallabies.
There has also been a third Aussie influence in the England camp in the form of George Smith, the Wasps and Australia flanker, who came into Pennyhill Park regularly during the Six Nations Championship to coach the breakdown.
Ella played alongside Jones for their school and then Randwick. When Jones was coach of Australia during the 2003 Rugby World Cup, Ella was his coaching assistant.
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Jones has been running the attack during England Six Nations campaign, but he has been specific about who he would take on to do the role. As important as any other credential for his candidates is a requirement to share Jones’s vision for attack.
Jones said yesterday that attack and backs skills is “an area we know we need to improve. I’m sure we’ll benefit greatly from having Glen on board for the tour”.
“Eddie’s got England moving in the right direction,” Ella said, “but there’s still a lot of work to be done, particularly in attack.”
In their schooldays at Matraville High in Sydney, Jones and Ella, together with Ella’s brothers Mark and Gary, helped to turn an unfashionable school from a largely immigrant population into New South Wales champions.