Northern Edition

Select Edition

Northern Northern
Southern Southern
Global Global
New Zealand New Zealand
France France

Jones: 'We left 15 points out there at least from our calculation'

(Photo by David Rogers/Getty Images)

Eddie Jones has suggested England should have been comfortable winners of last Saturday’s Guinness Six Nations opener in Edinburgh, claiming his team left at least 15 points behind them in the Murrayfield match they went on to lose 20-17 having led 17-10 with just over 15 minutes remaining. The Australian has copped heavy criticism in the aftermath of the defeat which was his team’s third consecutive round one loss in the championship in the last three years.

ADVERTISEMENT

England are now preparing to pick up the pieces when they play Italy away in Rome in round two of the tournament next Sunday and Jones is hoping his attack can be sharper to ensure there is no repeat of the chance-taking failures that left them vulnerable to Scotland’s perfectly-times ambush.  

“The thing we missed out on Saturday, we probably left 15 points out there at least from our calculation and if we were a bit sharper with that execution, a bit tidier around the breakdown we would have been able to convert those opportunities to points, so that is an easy thing to fix. 

Video Spacer

ASX Sports Fantasy Rugby | A new generation of fantasy rugby is here with apps for iOS and Android!

Video Spacer

ASX Sports Fantasy Rugby | A new generation of fantasy rugby is here with apps for iOS and Android!

“We are attacking in a different way – well, we are trying to attack in a different way and we had a little bit of lack of cohesion in some of the areas and we will make sure we will tidy that up for this week.”

Jones was criticised for numerous decisions he made during the game, especially his choice to take off on-song out-half Marcus Smith with England ahead by seven points and looking set to take what would have been a good-value win before they imploded in the closing 15 minutes.

Related

“Look, I am the best coach in the world with hindsight,” he shrugged, dismissing his critics. “I have done a few TV commentaries and I was the smartest coach in the world. But I made a decision on game day, I don’t have any regrets, I don’t look back. I am looking forward to Italy. 

“We’re disappointed by the result against Scotland, particularly given the (positive) way we played in the first 60 minutes of the game, but we have drawn a line in the sand on that and we have moved onto Italy and our aim is to make sure we light up Rome this week with a really good, energetic purposeful performance to build on what we did against Scotland.”

ADVERTISEMENT

England will confirm their squad for next weekend later on Tuesday once a series of medicals and covid tests are complete but Jones confirmed Lewis Ludlam is out with a rib cartilage injury and has been replaced by Joe Launchbury, while Courtney Lawes is rated as less than a 50 per cent chance of being available.

“We have got a great opportunity on Sunday playing against Italy who put in a spirited performance on Sunday against France. It is our next opportunity. We know we have got to tidy up a few areas of our game that we didn’t get right against Scotland and like any young team it is not a linear progression. 

“We’d love it to be linear but you have your little ups and downs and we had a down against Scotland and now we have got to make sure we get an up against Italy on Sunday.”

ADVERTISEMENT

LIVE

{{item.title}}

Trending on RugbyPass

Comments

0 Comments
Be the first to comment...

Join free and tell us what you really think!

Sign up for free
ADVERTISEMENT

Latest Features

Comments on RugbyPass

N
Nickers 36 minutes ago
Scott Robertson responds to criticism over All Blacks' handling errors

I thought we made a lot of progress against that type of defence by the WC last year. Lots of direct running and punching holes rather than using width. Against that type of defence I think you have to be looking to kick on first phase when you have front foot ball which we did relatively successfully. We are playing a lot of rugby behind the gain line at the moment. They are looking for those little interchanges for soft shoulders and fast ball or off loads but it regularly turns into them battering away with slow ball and going backwards, then putting in a very rushed kick under huge pressure.


JB brought that dimension when he first moved into 12 a couple of years ago but he's definitely not been at his best this year. I don't know if it is because he is being asked to play a narrow role, or carrying a niggle or two, but he does not look confident to me. He had that clean break on the weekend and stood there like he was a prop who found himself in open space and didn't know what to do with the ball. He is still a good first phase ball carrier though, they use him a lot off the line out to set up fast clean ball, but I don't think anyone is particularly clear on what they are supposed to do at that point. He was used really successfully as a second playmaker last year but I don't think he's been at that role once this year. He is a triple threat player but playing a very 1 dimensional role at the moment. He and Reiko have been absolutely rock solid on defence which is why I don't think there will be too much experimentation or changes there.

41 Go to comments
TRENDING
TRENDING All Blacks XV player ratings vs Munster | Autumn Nations Series All Blacks XV player ratings vs Munster
Search