Emma Raducanu to reject Eddie Jones’ Twickenham invitation
Emma Raducanu looks set to decline the Rugby Football Union’s (RFU) invitation to watch Eddie Jones’ England team play at Twickenham.
The RFU have provided British US Open champion Emma Raducanu with open invitations to watch Eddie Jones’ side play Autumn international matches against Australia and South Africa at Twickenham. However, according to the Guardian she looks set to turn the invitations down.
Jones has recently blamed the Brit’s loss of form following her shock US Open victory on her being too distracted by fame. Jones’ comments came as a warning to his own youngster 22-year-old fly-half Marcus Smith.
The 18-year-old remarkably won the US Open as a qualifier, but has since struggled for form. Raducanu lost in the first round of the Indian Wells Masters 2-6 4-6 to Aliaksandra Sasnovich in her first tournament since the US Open. The Brit reached the quarter-finals of the Transylvania Open, but then lost in the second round of the Upper Austria Ladies Linz 1-6 7-6 (7-0) 5-7 to Xinyu Wang.
Earlier this week, Jones said in a press conference, “there’s a reason why the young girl (Raducanu) who won the US Open hasn’t done so well afterwards.”
“What have you seen her on – the front page of Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar or whatever it is, wearing Christian Dior clothes. All that is a distraction around her.”
Following backlash from sporting celebrities, namely Gabby Logan and Judy Murray, Jones clarified his statements but refused to apologise as he didn’t feel he was wrong.
The 61-year-old rugby coach sent Raducanu a letter to reinforce the meaning of his comments, telling BBC sport “the whole point was how difficult it is for young players to cope with distractions.”
“So the point I made was not wrong. I can’t control if it’s taken out of context. There was no criticism of Emma [Raducanu].
“I have sent her a letter just to reinforce that and hopefully we’ll see her at Twickenham shortly (to watch England play).”
“I am disappointed it was taken out of context, and I would be disappointed if [Raducanu] was upset by it.
“It was deemed as being sexist and that was never the aim of the point.”
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