Jones restricted by RFU rules

Cape Town - New England coach Eddie Jones will be prevented from making wholesale squad changes.

Jones, who last month ditched the Stormers for the more lucrative England job, officially began his new job on Tuesday and has only a month before he is required to name his squad for the upcoming Six Nations.

According to The Guardian, Jones will have no option but to retain at least two-thirds of Stuart Lancaster’s failed England World Cup squad when he makes his first Six Nations selection in the new year.

Under the terms of the Rugby Football Union’s elite player squad agreement, Jones will be allowed to change a maximum of 11 players before his first Test in charge against Scotland at Murrayfield on February 6.

Rather than starting with a blank sheet of paper, Jones will be allowed to drop only 10 of the squad who went out of the World Cup at the pool stages, with Sam Burgess’s return to rugby league providing one additional space.