'He's always reading, he's always listening, he's always learning, which I think is a really good trait in a leader, in your boss - if he's innovating it creates a culture where we're always moving forward.'
Thursday 21 November 2019 11:55, UK
Former England captain Dylan Hartley has urged the Rugby Football Union to retain head coach Eddie Jones for the 2023 World Cup.
Jones, whose current contract expires in 2021, led England to the Rugby World Cup final earlier this month in Japan, where they lost to South Africa.
The Australian also oversaw back-to-back Six Nations victories in 2016 and 2017, including a Grand Slam in his debut campaign.
"He's ultimately delivered on everything," Hartley told Sky Sports News.
"He came in day one and he said to the team, 'we're going to win the World Cup and we're going to be number one in the world'. They got to number one in the world and they just fell short, so why would you change?
"I don't want to talk about style of rugby and entertaining rugby because ultimately you want to watch winning rugby, but I think we can all be very proud in seeing the way that the team plays.
"I get that feel-good feeling from watching the team play, so I think in terms of coaching, in terms of developing younger players, in terms of winning things, he's done an unbelievable job, so why would you change it?"
Hartley served as captain for much of Jones' tenure but a knee injury prevented him from playing in the World Cup, and then prompted his retirement from the sport two weeks ago.
Despite falling two years short of his aim to retire at the age of 35, Hartley said playing in the "high performance" environment Jones fostered has made ending his career more manageable.
"When the boss sits at the top and he's got that work ethic, it just filters down," Hartley said. "The captain, the staff, it filtered down to us, then you drive that amongst the players.
"He's always innovating. He's an old guy but he's always looking for something new. He's always talking to people, not just famous football managers, he'll talk to anyone.
"He's always reading, he's always listening, he's always learning, which I think is a really good trait in a leader, in your boss - if he's innovating it creates a culture where we're always moving forward."
Hartley was forced into a lengthy absence last year due to concussion, and the New Zealand-born hooker is now helping to promote a new piece of headgear which World Rugby have cleared for trial over the next five years.
The trial of the new product, designed by N-Pro, has been devised to allow approved manufacturers to gather further scientific evidence during games.
"The game is still in its infancy but I think rugby is a shining light in reducing head contact," Hartley said. "We want to be leading the way and products like N-Pro are a big part of that as pioneers.
"If you look at the Rugby World Cup just gone, there's so much focus on head-injury assessments and head knocks and rightly so - player safety is paramount.
We have to protect the guys that play the game and not just professionally, we still want numbers to rise, we still want kids to turn up at our local clubs and play the game that we love."
