Why Jones turned down B&I Lions job
The victorious England coach Eddie Jones said he was "completely unavailable" to coach the British and Irish Lions next year on their tour of New Zealand.
Jones revealed that his focus is solely on England.
His decisions to stay has a lot to do with his desire to make England the No.1 team in the world.
Fresh from the Six Nations champions series-clinching 23-7 win over the Wallabies in Melbourne, there have been renewed calls for him to become the first Australian to take charge of the B&I Lions.
But Jones, the first foreigner to coach England, emphatically ruled out being at the helm against the All Blacks.
"I signed a four-year contract to make England the best team in the world and I'm going to spend every minute I have doing that," Jone said.
"If I took the [B&I] Lions job I'd have to spend anything from six to 12 months not doing that," he added.
Rugby Football Union chief executive Ian Ritchie said he had advised the B&I Lions' committee that Jones would be concentrating on England.
"Eddie [Jones] does not want to do it and we want him to stay to coach England," Ritchie stated.
"Both us of feel that, between now and 2019, Eddie's focus is on the World Cup and nothing will change that,"
In terms of English representation in the B&I Lions squad, Jones said he believed there would be "at least" 15 players in the squad.
Furthermore the B&I Lions tour clashes with England's scheduled tour of Argentina in June 2017.
"I'd be hopeful of missing at least 15," he said. "If we can get 15 in the Lions squad we'll have had a good Six Nations and good November Tests,"
Meanwhile England's current tour down-under has been great. With a historical 2-0 series win over Australia, Jones hope his side can go a step further by securing a 3-0 clean-sweep.
However the coach has mentioned that he expects some team changes with openside flank James Haskell struggling with a sore foot and wing Jack Nowell undergoing concussion protocols.
"There'll be a few changes," he said.
"When I looked at the team on Saturday there were some guys there with only 80 minutes in them. They've been up since June last year and some are starting to show some signs of battle weariness,"
Agence France-Presse
