Kingsley Jones to leave job with Russia

Russian head coach Kingsley Jones will leave his post after 2 and half years in charge following the World Cup qualifying match with Germany this weekend.

After leaving Sale, Jones first got involved working with Russia in the build up to the 2011 World Cup following Steve Diamond going the other way from Russia to Sale. After the World Cup he took over the full head coach role from Nikolay Nerush, but in hindsight it will go down as one of worst appointments.

If we're being honest, Jones has never appeared from the outside to be especially interested in the job in the first place. Soon into the job he gave the Cardiff Blues a come get me plea after they parted company with Justin Burnell, and has been sharing the job as Lyn Jones' assistant coach at London Welsh and the Newport Gwent Dragons for most of his time in charge.

On top of sharing the job, Kingsley Jones has also been a regular pundit on Scrum V to the extent that there are considerable doubts as to how much Russia's supposed "Head Coach" was working them at all.

Kingsley Jones at a "Worthington
Wednesday Forum" at Cowbridge RFC

After Russia's 34-3 home defeat to Romania this year in Nebug, Kingsley Jones was appearing on live TV in Wales the following day. In the build up to Russia's match with big rivals Georgia, it was mentioned on Twitter that Kingsley was doing a "Worthington Wednesday Night Forum" alongside Phil Steele at Cowbridge RFC. There had also been occasions such as the practice match against a Russian Barbarians side where his name was absent from the list of coaches.

To contrast that with his Milton Haig of Georgia. He moved his young family to a completely foreign culture, spent the effort to learn the language (which he says he hopes to soon be able to use at press conferences), and invested his time and commitment to working hard from the senior team to the U20's.

The only justification for hiring a coach who appeared to have an apparent lack of commitment to the role like Kingsley Jones, would be if he was produced outstanding work to make up for it when he was there. But Russia regressed under his charge.

Kingsley Jones results against
top 18 ranked nations

Before Kingsley Jones took over in 2012, Russia had qualified for the World Cup automatically for the first time and had gone on a 5 match unbeaten run against Romania and achieved an all time IRB ranking high of 16.

However since 2012 results, particularly against other teams from the World Cup have plummeted. Russia led Canada for 60 minutes in 2011, just over a year later they were losing 35-3. They lost a tight contest with USA in the World Cup, their two matches since have been one sided. Romania have put scores of 25-0 and 34-3 on them away from home, Georgia have crushed them 46-0 and 36-10, and Japan put 40 points on them last November despite one of their sloppiest performances of the year.

Considering Kingsley Jones' lack of commitment to the job and poor results, questions have to be asked as to why did Kingsley accept it in the first place when he didn't show much indication that he really wanted it? Was it just for the money?

Also the question needs to be asked as to why the RUR appointed a coach who didn't look like he wanted the job in the first place, and then kept backing him as the other commitments tallied up and the results were dropping. Japan were faced with a similar situation a few years ago with Jean-Pierre Elissalde, who was sacked after eyeing up other options back in France.

Raphaël Saint-Andre will takeover
from Kingsley Jones, meaning both
he and his brother now are in
charge of ailing international sides.

Despite Kingsley Jones no longer being Head Coach, his regime will still be in place. His assistant Raphaël Saint-André will takeover the job (meaning both he and his brother are now national team coaches), and Jones will be invited to act as a consultant, which was all pretty much was anyway.

The RUR's Howard Thomas commented that Jones has "left the nation's players with greater knowledge and skills" (which clearly wasn't exhibited on the pitch), whilst praising him for "working very hard".

Russia should beat Germany easily and still may qualify for the World Cup beating Uruguay. But the Union has made a mess of the momentum of their debut appearance, this despite being having been considered by the IRB as a Target Union. Kingsley Jones may be gone, but those who approved his appointment (which has slight suspicions of cronyism attached) also need to have a look at and review their work as well.