London - Eddie Jones has told George Ford that joining his father Mike at Toulon would mean the end of his England career.
The French giants recently appointed Mike Ford as their head
coach after sacking Diego Dominguez and reports suggests they are interested in
the services of Bath flyhalf Ford.
Jones said any player who signed for a club in France would
be throwing away their England career as he will only pick players who play
their trade in England.
Jones plans to sit down with Ford during England’s
warm-weather training camp in the Algarve and will remind that anyone swapping
the Premiership for the Top 14 will not be picked.
"We don’t want to lose George but ultimately he’s got
to make a decision," said Jones. "It’s an easy choice: you either
sign for an English club or a French club. If you sign for a French club, you
don’t play for England. I want players who want to play for England. If he
doesn’t want to play for England, so be it."
Jones said he supports the Rugby Football Union’s stance on
the issue and believes it would cause the English game serious problems if he
were to make any exceptions.
"I think it’s 100% right. It protects English rugby for
the long term. You’ve only got to look at what’s happened in France, where
foreign players have been allowed to escalate to over 50-60%, and you have massive
problems for the national game. You take some short-term pain for the long-term
gain. This is not an Englishman talking. For the long-term future of the game
we need to look after the Premiership.
"To be the number one team in the world we need players with the absolute desire to play for England. So there’s no choice here. If you want to play for England, you play for an English club. There’s no more discussion."