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Clive Woodward partially blames England loss on Eddie Jones
By Ian Cameron
As the dust settled on a thrilling Calcutta Cup encounter at Twickenham on Saturday, many humorously surmised that Sir Clive Woodward would someone manage to blame Eddie Jones for the loss, despite the Australian being 11,000 miles away and coaching a different side.
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And that’s exactly what Woodward managed done in his Daily Mail column.
The 2003 Rugby World Cup took just two sentences to mention his former colleague and media-sparing partner. Woodward’s criticism of Jones has become a running gag for many, but the jokes seemed to have been lost coach turned pundit.
“There is still a fear factor in the England players, a legacy of the Eddie Jones era that will take time for Borthwick to eradicate. England were programmed under Jones to minimise risk in their own half. That meant box kicking too often and kicking the ball away,” wrote the 67-year-old.
“England wouldn’t have dreamt of running the ball from their own 22 as Scotland did several times. The change to a more attacking approach won’t happen overnight, but it must take place.”
Despite the loss, there was a sense of optimism that at least Borthwick’s men looked like they were going in the right direction. Even Woodward could see the green shoots, with Max Malins’ try from a delightful Marcus Smith crossfield kick the pick of the bunch.
“When England play like that, no side in the world can live with them,” noted Woodward of the try and it’s lead-up.
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There remains plenty to fix for Borthwick, who took charge after England’s seven years under Jones and with eight months to go until the World Cup. England were their own worst enemies in their first game of the post-Eddie Jones era as they sought to eke out victory in the second half.
A dropped restart after Genge’s try in the 49th minute gave Scotland the platform to reply through a try from Ben White — via a missed tackle by England flanker Ben Curry — to leave the boys in blue only 20-19 behind.
Owen Farrell’s penalty made it 23-19 but, again, England’s errors allowed Finn Russell to boot his own penalty to trail 23-2 2 and give Scotland hope. Van der Merwe made the English pay with a winning try as he cut in off the left wing and through two challengers to score.
“This is the first game of a new coach and campaign,” England lock Maro Itoje said after the game. “We wanted a win and fell short. We have to stay positive.
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“We are ultimately disappointed — we just weren’t good enough. Fair play to Scotland. There were a few things we got wrong as a team but we can fix them.”
additional reporting AAP
Change the record Woodward! We get it, you don't like Eddie Jones but there are very few teams that look to play out of their 22 and most will end up kicking in their own half. I think it was more the defense that let England down, too many tackles missed on the gainline allowing them to make ground and how many missed for the Van der Merwe try by going too high on a big man?
"England were programmed under Jones to minimise risk in their own half. That meant box kicking too often and kicking the ball away"
for me this is the stupidest part of the whole thing. 1) did he not watch how leicester played under borthwick? 2) did he not notice that when it came to kick tennis England were completely dominating scotland, getting fairly easy 30metre gains every time there was a kicking exchange
"When England play like that, no side in the world can live with them". Yes, SCW, if England were to do that 15 times each game then that would be hard to beat, because it amounts to 100 points. You could say that about any try by any team. If you're suggesting that other teams don't score off cross kicks then that's not the smartest or most informed comment.