A blast from English rugby’s recent past will rock up at Twickenham on Sunday looking to plunge the national team into a crisis.
Imagine Eddie Jones’ delight if that was to happen, especially given the bad PR he’s had in England of late.
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England's Ollie Lawrence reacts after the end of the Autumn Nations series rugby union match between England and South Africa, at Twickenham, in London, Saturday, Nov. 16, 2024, South Africa won the game 29-20. (AP Photo/Ian Walton)
England players reacts after the end of the Autumn Nations series rugby union match between England and South Africa, at Twickenham, in London, Saturday, Nov. 16, 2024, South Africa won the game 29-20. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)
England's head coach Steve Borthwick walks on the pitch to watch his players during the warm-up ahead of the Autumn Nations series rugby union match between England and South Africa, at Twickenham, in London, Saturday, Nov. 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)
Japan's Eddie Jones watches his players warm-up before the Autumn Nations series rugby union match between France and Japan at the Stade de France in Saint-Denis, outside Paris, Saturday, Nov. 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena)
Japan's Eddie Jones watches his players warm-up before the Autumn Nations series rugby union match between France and Japan at the Stade de France in Saint-Denis, outside Paris, Saturday, Nov. 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena)
Jones — rugby’s most charismatic, in-your-face coach — brings Japan to the 82,000-seat stadium southwest of London seeking to create some history by leading the Brave Blossoms to a first ever win over England.
For England fans who have seen their team lose five matches on the trot, it’s an unthinkable scenario that Japan can make it No. 6 — a streak of defeats the English haven’t experienced since 2006.
If it does happen, coach Steve Borthwick might be in an untenable position, two years after succeeding Jones.
Indeed, Jones isn’t short of motivation this weekend.
His name is mud for some in the English game in the wake of the release of former England scrumhalf Danny Care’s autobiography, “Everything Happens for a Reason,” in which he wrote that the England camp under Jones was “like living in a dictatorship, under a despot who disappeared people.”
“Remember what it felt like when someone was being bullied at school and you were just glad it wasn’t you?” wrote Care, who is retired from international rugby. “That was the vibe.”
Others used the opportunity to jump on Jones, including former England flyhalf Danny Cipriani, who said Jones was “not somebody that I’d want to lead my country, because of the way he carries himself.”
Jones coached England from 2015-22, leading the team to three Six Nations titles, a Rugby World Cup final in 2019 and 17 straight wins early in his reign, only for his tenure to peter out amid increasing questions over his coaching style. Care acknowledged Jones gave him “some of the greatest memories of my rugby career” but that it “came at a price.”
The Rugby Football Union responded to Care’s comments by saying no complaints were made about Jones by players, either to the governing body or via its confidential whistleblowing service. Current England captain Jamie George accepted Jones’ tenure was “challenging” for players but said the Australian “did brilliant things for English rugby.”
How Borthwick would take some of the wins England managed against the southern hemisphere powers in the Jones era.
England lost back-to-back tests against New Zealand in July and three straight November tests, to the All Blacks, Australia and South Africa. None of them have been hammerings — the combined margin of defeat this month is 16 points and all three entertaining matches have given the crowd at Twickenham plenty of value for money — but England is making the same mistakes every time, and showing fallibility when in winning positions late in games.
Backup England hooker Luke Cowan-Dickie attributed it to “mental” issues but feels the team is going in the right direction under Borthwick.
Still, lose to Japan ahead of a Six Nations campaign that starts for England in February with games against the two top title contenders, Ireland away and France at home, and Borthwick will be in desperate trouble.
Japan comes into the match on the back of a 36-20 win over Uruguay on Saturday, but was overwhelmed 52-12 by France the week before and lost to England 52-17 in Tokyo in June.
The teams met in last year’s World Cup, with England winning 34-12.
AP rugby: https://apnews.com/hub/rugby
England's Ollie Lawrence reacts after the end of the Autumn Nations series rugby union match between England and South Africa, at Twickenham, in London, Saturday, Nov. 16, 2024, South Africa won the game 29-20. (AP Photo/Ian Walton)
England players reacts after the end of the Autumn Nations series rugby union match between England and South Africa, at Twickenham, in London, Saturday, Nov. 16, 2024, South Africa won the game 29-20. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)
England's head coach Steve Borthwick walks on the pitch to watch his players during the warm-up ahead of the Autumn Nations series rugby union match between England and South Africa, at Twickenham, in London, Saturday, Nov. 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)
Japan's Eddie Jones watches his players warm-up before the Autumn Nations series rugby union match between France and Japan at the Stade de France in Saint-Denis, outside Paris, Saturday, Nov. 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena)
Japan's Eddie Jones watches his players warm-up before the Autumn Nations series rugby union match between France and Japan at the Stade de France in Saint-Denis, outside Paris, Saturday, Nov. 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena)
BAKU, Azerbaijan (AP) — The United Nations' annual climate talks pushed into overtime Saturday under a cloud of anger and disappointment as negotiators were well short of a deal on money for developing nations to curb and adapt to climate change.
A draft of the final agreement Friday pledged $250 billion annually by 2035, more than double the previous goal of $100 billion set 15 years ago but far short of the annual $1 trillion-plus that experts say is needed. Through the early hours of Saturday morning, The Associated Press saw lead negotiators from the European Union, the United States and other nations going through the empty halls from meeting to meeting as delegates tried to hash out a new version of the deal.
“We're still working hard,” U.S. climate envoy John Podesta told the AP past 4 a.m. local time. And by late Saturday morning, he and other delegations said talks on a new deal were still ongoing.
Alden Meyer, of the European think tank E3G, said negotiators now have very little room for error.
“They’ve got to make sure whatever they put on the table is something that can fly. ... Because otherwise we start to lose critical mass as ministers start to leave tonight and into tomorrow,” Meyer said. “So, they are under a deadline, but this is when it gets real.”
The climate talks, called COP29, in Baku, Azerbaijan, were scheduled to end Friday. Workers have already begun dismantling the venue for the talks.
Wealthy nations are obligated to help vulnerable countries under an agreement reached at these talks in Paris in 2015. Developing nations are seeking $1.3 trillion to help adapt to droughts, floods, rising seas and extreme heat, pay for losses and damages caused by extreme weather, and transition their energy systems away from planet-warming fossil fuels and toward clean energy.
Representatives of some of the nations that are obliged to contribute the cash said the $250 billion climate finance figure is realistic and reflects their limits at a time when their own economies are stretched.
But on Saturday morning, Irish environment minister Eamon Ryan said that he felt there'll be a new number in the next draft.
"We’ll have to see what the final number is. I don’t think it’ll be the one initially published yesterday," Ryan said. “But it’s not just that number — it's how do you get to 1.3 trillion."
Ryan said that any number reached at the COP will have to be supplemented with other sources of finance, for example through a market for carbon emissions where polluters would pay to offset what they emit.
The amount in any deal reached at COP negotiations — often considered a “core” — will then be mobilized or leveraged for greater climate spending. But much of that means loans for countries drowning in debt.
“We have to get agreement quickly. And I hope and believe we can,” Ryan said.
Vulnerable nations, many already battered by extreme weather made worse largely by emissions from the burning of fossil fuels they've had little to do with were angered by the draft text published on Friday.
“Developed countries must commit trillions, not empty promises," said Harjeet Singh, Director for the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative. "Anything less makes them squarely responsible for the failure of these talks and the betrayal of billions across the globe.”
Meyer of E3G said it’s still up in the air whether a deal will come out of Baku at all.
“It is still not out of the question that there could be an inability to close the gap on the finance issue,” he said. “That obviously is not an ideal scenario.”
Several dozen activists marched in silence outside the halls where delegates meet late Friday, raising and crossing their arms in front of themselves to indicate rejection of the draft text.
Also late Friday, 355 civil society organizations released a letter in support of the G77 and China negotiating group’s rejection of the latest draft.
The letter urged negotiators to “stand up for the people of the Global South," saying that “no deal in Baku is better than a bad deal.”
Lidy Nacpil, a Filipino coordinator with the Asian Peoples’ Movement on Debt and Development, said activists would still be unhappy if the climate finance number doubles to $500 billion.
“We’re still at this point where we are asking developing countries to stay strong and not just give in to far, far less than what should be,” she said.
With bleary eyes, seated around cold pizza, a group of youth activists chatted to keep each other awake through the early hours of Saturday in one of the main halls of the venue.
“All of us are kind of in mourning in a way,” said Jessica Dunne, with the Alliance of Non-Governmental Radical Youth. But the group said being in community eases the painful emotions that come with a process Dunne called an “abject failure.”
“In these halls tonight, as we’re sitting here and we’re talking and we’re dancing and crying and laughing, it kind of gives you hope that there will be another day that we’re going to fight for,” she said.
Associated Press journalists Ahmed Hatem, Aleksandar Furtula and Joshua A. Bickel contributed to this report.
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Marina Silva, Brazil environment minister, stands near a sign for the COP29 U.N. Climate Summit, Saturday, Nov. 23, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits)
John Podesta, U.S. climate envoy, center right, and U.S. Deputy Climate Envoy Sue Biniaz, center, walk outside the venue for the COP29 U.N. Climate Summit, Saturday, Nov. 23, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits)
A member of security stands with the Baku Olympic Stadium in the background during the COP29 U.N. Climate Summit, Saturday, Nov. 23, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits)
Attendees pull luggage as they walk into the venue for the COP29 U.N. Climate Summit, Saturday, Nov. 23, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits)
Australia Climate Minister Chris Bowen, center, walks through a hallway at the COP29 U.N. Climate Summit in the early hours of Saturday, Nov. 23, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan. (AP Photo/Joshua A. Bickel)
U.S. Deputy Climate Envoy Sue Biniaz, right, and Wopke Hoekstra, EU climate commissioner, second from right, walk out of an elevator during the COP29 U.N. Climate Summit in the early hours of Saturday, Nov. 23, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan. (AP Photo/Joshua A. Bickel)
John Podesta, U.S. climate envoy, right, walks through the hallways of the COP29 U.N. Climate Summit in the early hours of Saturday, Nov. 23, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan. (AP Photo/Joshua A. Bickel)
People sleep in the Chinese delegation offices at the COP29 U.N. Climate Summit in the early hours of Saturday, Nov. 23, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan. (AP Photo/Joshua A. Bickel)
Activists demonstrate in silence protesting a draft of a proposed deal for curbing climate change at the COP29 U.N. Climate Summit, Friday, Nov. 22, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool)
