This former Australia coach has breathed fresh life into English rugby since taking over the national side following a disastrous World Cup campaign on home soil.
Taking over an England side as an Australian is never an easy task but Eddie Jones has made it look like a walk in the park since accepting the Twickenham hot-seat back in November 2015. It has been evolution rather than revolution under his leadership, with the majority of the side involved in the World Cup still playing a key role in both the Six Nations and the subsequent tour to Australia.
The personnel may have remained but the results have been dramatically different, with England celebrating a first Grand Slam for 13 years and then, perhaps more impressively, a historic 3-0 series win against Australia Down Under – the first time the hosts had been whitewashed on home soil.
England’s fightback from adversity has mirrored that of their coach. Jones suffered a stroke while coaching Japan back in 2013 but has since battled back to full fitness. Under his leadership England also look in the rudest of health.
Martin Offiah, a member of the Mirror’s Pride of Sport Awards in partnership with TSB judging panel, said: “What Eddie Jones has done is never going to be done again.
“He has taken almost the same team (from the 2015 World Cup) and taken them through a Six Nations and a tour of Australia.”
Claudio Ranieri performed a similar miracle at football's Leicester City – turning the Foxes from also-rans who barely avoided relegation the previous season into Premier League champions.
It was a modern football fairy tale and one that captured the imagination of fans across the world. Leicester have now transferred that domestic form to the continent, with genial Italian Ranieri having taken them to the brink of qualification for the knockout phase of the Champions League in their first ever crack at the competition.
“Kids will be told the story of what Leicester did in 50 and 100 years’ time,” said judge and ceremony host, Ben Shephard.
Great Britain’s female hockey stars did more than simply win a Gold medal in Rio this summer – they inspired a future generation and took the sport to a level not seen since the 1980s.
Much of that is down to the influence of their coach Danny Kerry, who kept his nerve, got the best out of a talent-laden squad and celebrated that most un-British of sporting occurrences – a victory in a penalty shoot-out!
Few would have denied that Great Britain deserved the Gold in Brazil, with Kerry’s side playing a brand of hockey that captured the imagination of both those lucky enough to be in the Deodoro Park and the thousands cheering them on from their sofas back home.
It’s a measure of how fast hockey rose up the national conscience during the first Games held in South America that the start of the Ten o’clock News was delayed so the BBC could take in the penalty shoot- out in full.
Kerry’s in influence was clear. He has wrought a quiet revolution since taking over the job 11 years ago and enjoyed his moment in the sun as Great Britain rose from non-qualifiers in Athens in 2004 to the top of the world in Rio.
Our winner will be announced at our ceremony on 7th December.
