Eddie Jones is facing extra heat in his choice of five eighth to face the Wallabies after George Ford missed six of seven shots at goal in England’s 27-13 win over Wales.
England coach Jones condemned booing that greeted Ford’s wayward kicking in Sunday’s Test at Twickenham and launched a strong defence of the 23-year-old ahead of the three-Test tour to Australia.
Ford had been earmarked to start the first Test against the Wallabies despite calls for Owen Farrell to be given the 10 jersey for the June 11 clash at Brisbane’s Suncorp Stadium.
But it was not until the 48th minute that he was able to make his mark on the scoreboard despite a succession of easy attempts.
As the misses piled up, a sold-out 80,000 crowd responded with jeers and it was an ironic cheer that greeted his conversion of Jack Clifford’s try and eventual substitution with five minutes remaining.
“That’s not very nice is it? We have got to be careful of that in rugby,” Jones said of the booing.
“He’s a tough boy. I’m not worried about him, he’ll be fine. He’s a fantastic rugby player. Everyone has experiences which aren’t pleasant, but he will be fine.”
Jones backed Ford to brush off the experience as simply a bad day at the office and rated the rest of his play highly.
“I have seen Tiger Woods miss putts, I have seen Michael Jordan miss jump shots, everyone has a bad day and he had a bad day kicking but I thought the rest of his play was brilliant,” Jones said.
“He knew when to run and he knew when to kick and he had a few dabs himself.
“We scored five tries, one was a bit how’s your mother, and the other four were scored by backs. If you score four tries against Wales your stand-off is doing something right.
“The thing that strikes me is that we’ve just beaten Wales five tries to one and we’re talking about a guy who can’t kick a few goals.
“It’s quite amazing and just shows the negative reaction in English rugby. It’s quite sad… I find it quite sad to be honest.
“Wales are literally full strength, we’re missing 11 players and we’re talking about a young kid who misses some kicks. We need to get some perspective on where we’re going in the game here.”
England are set to name a tour replacement for the injured centre Manu Tuilagi with Luther Burrell doing his claim to being chosen ahead of Ollie Devoto no harm with a muscular first-half try.
Join The Roar rugby editor Christy Doran, former Wallaby Matt Toomua and a cast of regular and special guests as they look at the biggest issues in the game on The Roar Rugby Podcast. If you’re looking for great odds on the next game check out Aussie bookmaker PlayUp. Chances are you’re about to lose. Set a deposit limit.
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