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Jones' verdict on Smith kicking the ball dead rather than playing on

(Photo by Alex Davidson/The RFU Collection via Getty Images)

Eddie Jones has defended the decision by Marcus Smith to kick the ball dead rather than launch a last-gasp England counterattack to try and win Saturday night’s drawn Autumn Nations Series clash with the All Blacks. A beaten-looking English side had amazingly fought back from losing 6-25 to score three tries in the closing eight minutes at Twickenham to pull level.

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However, after Smith had kicked the conversion of the second Will Stuart try to tie up the score in a contest that New Zealand appeared set for a long period to win comfortably, the out-half decided to kick the ball into the stands to end the game following the final seconds restart from halfway by the Kiwis.

At the time, the momentum was fully in favour of England given their intoxicating grandstand finish against an opposition that was reduced to 14 players when Beauden Barrett was yellow carded on 72 minutes for foul play at a breakdown just before the first Stuart try.

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Smith, though, spurned the invitation to launch one last-gasp counter and there were some boos from England fans when he opted to punt the ball off the pitch rather than attack the space in front of him. His coach, though, had his back at the post-game media conference, insisting that it was the type of decision he had no influence over and that he had to support his player in that type of situation.

Asked about the kick out at the end, Jones said: “It is always up to the players, mate. I trust their decision-making. I’m not on the field, I don’t have access to them, so I just trust their decision.” So do you back it then, do you agree with it? “As I said, that’s their decision.”

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Over to skipper Owen Farrell then, what was the discussion on the pitch before the New Zealand restart? “We just wanted to see where we were at at the ruck. If we got go-forward and got on the front foot and we had an opportunity we wanted to take it, if not we wanted to make a good decision. I think that was what was done.”

Jones’ counterpart, New Zealand boss Ian Foster, had a very different view of what happened. “Was I surprised? Yeah, I was. All I know is if you flipped it over I would have liked our guys to have a crack so I am not sure what their tactics were but to be fair to them, they were running hot for seven, eight minutes. Things were going really well and they probably felt like getting back to a draw was a massive achievement in that time and so they probably decided to take it.”

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Jones later described the second-half contribution of Smith as the youngster’s finest 40 minutes so far in an England shirt. It was while speaking about the even more inexperienced starting scrum-half Jack van Poortvliet, who endured a difficult evening before he exited with an injury, that the coach sang the praises of both, especially the No10 Smith.

“JVP, the bone went through his finger. Something like that. He is a tough young bloke so he should be okay,” he said before rating the No9’s performance in a match where his early intercepted pass gave the All Blacks an early lead.

“A brilliant young player, that is one of the best games for him, where things don’t go well you have got to battle through. That is when they learn a lot and I thought for two young halves, JVP and Marcus, that is the best 40 I have seen Marcus play Test rugby. Aggressive, decisive, wanted to own the game, not as an individual but as part of the team. That was a big step forward for the young man.”

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3 Comments
b
buster 650 days ago

ABs wouldn't of been allowed home if they played for a draw.
Gutless

C
CT 712 days ago

Would you expect him to be against the on field decision of his player, obviously not

M
Martyn 713 days ago

Jones will see this as a victory as it may just have saved his ass.
Saying that, the ABs should never have put themselves in that situation. Is it me, but this ABs team don't seem was fit under Foster, for the past 18 months, they've failed to play a full 80 minutes. Bench was also poor today, Laulala over Newell was a shit decision, Sotutu over Akira Ioane, NAH. Even TJ failed to fire. Poor choices which has been Foster & co's problem all year!!

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Bull Shark 2 hours ago
Rassie Erasmus' Boks selection policy is becoming bizarre

To be fair, the only thing that drives engagement on this site is over the top critiques of Southern Hemisphere teams.


Or articles about people on podcasts criticizing southern hemisphere teams.


Articles regarding the Northern Hemisphere tend to be more positive than critical. I guess to also rile up kiwis and Saffers who seem to be the majority of followers in the comments section. There seems to be a whole department dedicated to Ireland’s world ranking news.


Despite being dialled into the Northern edition - I know sweet fokall about what’s going on in France.


And even less than fokall about what’s cutting in Japan - which has a fast growing, increasingly premium League competition emerging.


And let’s not talk about the pacific. Do they even play rugby Down there.


Oh and the Americas. I’ve read more articles about a young, stargazing Welshman’s foray into NFL than I have anything related to either the north and south continents of the Americas.


I will give credit that the women’s game is getting decent airtime. But for the rest and the above; it’s just pathetic coming from a World Rugby website.


Just consider the innovation emerging in Japan with the pedigree of coaches over there.


There’s so much good we could be reading.


Instead it’s unimaginative “critical for the sake of feigning controversial”. Which is lazy, because in order to pull that off all you need to be really good at is:


1. Being a doos;

2. Having an opinion.


No prior experience needed.


Which is not journalism. That’s like all or most of us in the comments section. People like Finn (who I believe is a RP contributor).


Anyway. Hopefully it will get better. The game is growing and the interest in the game is growing. Maybe it will attract more qualified journalists over time.

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