England coach Eddie Jones is still taking the blame for England’s woeful Six Nations start against Scotland but couldn’t explain why his side were so bad.
England’s Australian coach Eddie Jones called an unexpected news conference but anyone hoping to hear that perhaps he had worked out why his team were so poor against Scotland will be disappointed and wondering why he bothered.
England were well beaten by the Scots in the opening game of their Six Nations defence, an all-round pummelling that the 11-6 scoreline barely reflected.
The subsequent media post-mortem focused on flyhalf Owen Farrell’s tendency to kick away the little possession he got, a tactic highlighted by the fact that inside centre Ollie Lawrence did not touch the ball until more than an hour had passed.
After the match, Jones had dismissed the issue, saying that the backs were almost an irrelevance in a game where Scotland dominated possession.
Yet newspaper graphics showing how Farrell had continually ignored the speedy men outside him when he did have the ball seemingly countered that argument.
Asked on Tuesday whether the tactic was the choice of his flyhalf and captain or whether Farrell was just following orders, Jones was at his most dismissive.
“Once we get on the field the players make all the decisions, that’s always been the case, but the responsibility to prepare them for the game is the head coach and therefore I didn’t give them the right information,” he said.
“There are five million situations in a game and we don’t coach five million situations. We’re just disappointed we didn’t improve from the French game but now we’re looking ahead to Italy.”
On Saturday, Jones said it was “just one of those days” and if his extensive analysis has since found a more forensic explanation for his team’s struggles, he wasn’t about to share it.
“We just felt that we held back a little bit and we weren’t our usual vibrant selves,” he said.
“We’re really making sure that we focus on ourselves this week and get playing the sort of rugby we’d like to play, which is getting on the front foot and keeping the opposition on the back foot.”
That opposition, probably fortuitously for Jones, is a youthful Italy, who have not won a Six Nations game for six years and who were utterly outclassed by France in Rome on Saturday.
Jones will be boosted by the return of both his first-choice props as Kyle Sinckler, who was suspended last week, and Mako Vunipola, have rejoined the squad.
JD Kiwi
Roar Rookie
Fair comments Jim, but remember how small the Aussie rugby community is compared to England's, and how many world cups they've won...
Jim
Guest
Not sure why they would have an inferiority complex to Aussie rugby which is at best, a mess and at worst pathetic. They are in awe of good coaches and players. If Aus is so good then why are the coaches and players overseas?Why are the Wallabies what sixth best team. As to the kiwis, probably correct as they are seriously impressive and fire in all the areas where Aus fail - bring through new talent, building teams, coaching, managing; you name it. Maybe time for the "big brother" to shut up, stop the chest beating and listen to their " little brother"
Tom G
Roar Rookie
Eddie has throughout his career been a good coach, however has a couple of problems. One is his stick and pick policy which makes it harder to be dropped than selected and the other is a lack of a plan b. He was the same with the Wallabies
Oblonsky’s Other Pun
Guest
No one has denied he inherited a squad with a lot of promise, but he turned that promise into a lot of success. But promise does not = success. Shag has a squad with a lot of promise in 2016 and achieved, not much. One can’t criticise Shag’s coaching from 2012-15. But at the same time, as above, he inherited probably the strongest post-world cup squad of all time, with all his best players going until the World Cup and remaining the best players in their positions.
JD Kiwi
Roar Rookie
OOP, I'd have thought that you'd have understood cycles better than that. He didn't have to build his own team (Lancaster did that) and he didn't take on a team that had underperformed for years, he took on a young team that had been gaining experience and had, like all young teams, been inconsistent. And let's not play down the production line at his disposal - three world U20S championship winners. So much talent there, and all at a time when none of the major opponents were at the peak of a cycle. For Hansen, absolutely he inherited a great team, but it is very difficult to keep a champion test rugby team dominant for another four years. Actually he's the only person to do it, certainly during my lifetime. Surely that's a great achievement? In retrospect it's arguable that after then he kept on too many of the older players for too long given that, unlike in 2015, so many dropped out of the first fifteen before the World Cup. That was his judgement call and it didn't pay off. But I'd still argue that it was a reasonable call to make, we probably wouldn't have won in 2019 with lots of new players anyway.
Neil Back
Roar Rookie
Nah, they were pretty convincingly put away. The Jocks left quite a few points on the field. Yes Eddie had half his starting pack missing and the Sarries contingent had no rugby for months, but they were flat and had a 10 and captain who could neither redirect play or rally the troops. And you have to take the ref out of the game. At the end of the day, that's the best I've seen Scotland play in a 6N for a while.
Neil Back
Roar Rookie
Every team struggles with a penalty count that one sided. Kills any momentum.
Neil Back
Roar Rookie
I think my experience of poms is greater than yours JD, and it is not one of 'hate' towards Aussies. I can't think of a nation that's actually hated, but I can think of quite a number of highly anticipated sporting rivalries. When it comes to rugby, Australia is quite a little way down that list. Cricket on the other hand ......
Armchair Halfback
Roar Rookie
Like OOP, I don't think it's "insecurity" per se, I think it's just the UK adjusting to the reality that they don't have an empire and other than economic consequences, Europe doesn't care for them much. Perhaps they've bought "summer bay" version of Australia and are awed by it?
valleybeanie
Roar Rookie
I think the UK media love Eddie because he always has plenty to say – makes their job way easier.
valleybeanie
Roar Rookie
For mine Hansen should probably have gone after the 2017 Lions Tour as 2018 & 2019 were messy at best. That aside I still can't believe how poor England were in the RWC final after such a dominant semi final victory when a twelve point margin didn't flatter them at all. Jones must take massive blame for that. He'll no doubt remain hungry until he has a chance at redemption in 2023 but will the England players handle two and a half more years of his mind games?
Thistle
Roar Rookie
Agreed on Russell, he was Okish. Funniest one I have seen is a bloke aged 42, with a very manly beard, who said he had been waiting 38 years for this to happen and put up a picture of himself blurting like a big bairn! Too funny.
Oblonsky’s Other Pun
Guest
Was always going to be tough to maintain results after 5+ years at the helm. We are into year 6 of Eddie’s England. Hard to keep having new ideas after such a long time.
Oblonsky’s Other Pun
Guest
Personally, I think that’s an example of the NZ adoration with leading to twisting of history. Shag took over the best rugby team in the world, from a country with the best rugby production line and systems in the world. No offence, but Henry had already built a team with plenty of players who may be the GOATs in their position. He inherited a side with Kaino, Reid, McCaw, Carter, Nonu, C. Smith and B. Smith/Dagg. 2016-19 is when he had to build his own team from scratch, and struggled. Jones took a team that has underperformed for years and lost in the group stages of their home WC. Went on something like a 17 match winning streak to start, won three 6N, a grand slam, World Cup runner up. Hansen may have played exciting rather than ‘insipid’ rugby over 2017-19. But it was less effective than England’s.
Highlander
Roar Guru
I have just listened to the Thistle podcast - good fun and real happy bunch of blokes, worth a listen for we neutrals Interesting, they too observed Russell wasn't anything special on the day
Tooly
Roar Rookie
Actually they were only just beaten by a very good Scottish side . A few reasons were. . Missing Marler , Vunapolo and Sinkler in the front row and Underhill at 7. . Johnny May had a very rare shocker. Not helped when the Scots winger was 2 metres off side on kicks. . 14, 13, 12 were inaffective. . The Referee blew a penalty every minute in the first twenty almost all against England. . They were therefore unable to build pressure. . Scotland played well and kicked well. . So too did most English players.
JD Kiwi
Roar Rookie
Massive differences there OOP. Hansen took over an ageing team and got another World Cup win with them - an unprecedented achievement. They were always going to go downhill after the likes of McCaw, Carter, Smith, Nonu, Mealamu, Woodcock and Kaino retired, with the likes of Faumuina, Messam, Cruden and Savea leaving and NMS, Dagg, Ben Smith, SBW, Crotty and Franks dropping out with age or injury. Jones was so much better placed than any of his predecessors after Sir Clive. He took over a very talented bunch of youngsters, with most of his final team having RWC experience and supplemented by the best of three Junior World Cup winners. This just as we came to the end of our cycle, Australia and France were poor and South Africa were in a flux - a new coach and only five players over fifty caps. He has such a great opportunity, he should be making hay, but their rugby is insipid. No way would Hansen or any other All Black coach be allowed to get away with that.
PeterK
Roar Guru
England just couldn't cope with being penalised for what they get away with a lot. That got them behind. Then they couldn't adjust when they didn't get rewarded with penalties when scotland had the ball i.e it was not risky to keep the ball.
Oblonky’s Other Pun
Guest
I don’t think the Poms have an inferiority complex. The reason Eddie gets a reasonably good ride is probably his results, so much better than what England showed from 04-15. It is hard for a coach to maintain results over more than 4-5 years as things get stale. Look at Shag (who I think the NZ media was way, way too soft on for years). But England are still the number 3 side. Were number 2 before this one poor loss.
Thistle
Roar Rookie
Been watching England for years, since the 70's. They typically only ever have one game plan and matches they lost are where that game plan is neutered and they are left bereft of both plan B and mostly any clue what to do. Strangely enough, this was a feature of EJ when he coached the Wallabies - all heavily structured and choreographed. When teams deciphered the EJ code, there was no plan B. Scotland took on England with a pro player base of 100 v a pro base of 500. Putting game plans aside, he clearly did not select form players eg the Simmonds boys. Seems to me he has some accounting to do to the RFU. Game plan(s) and selections look awry.