Jones takes swipe after proving his critics wrong over out of position stars
AN EMBOLDENED Eddie Jones claimed England’s first-half domination over Ireland meant they “could have declared” at the break, such was their stranglehold on the eventual 24-12 Six Nations victory.
England led 17-0 at half-time thanks to George Ford and Elliot Daly tries that stemmed directly from Irish errors, with the pressure being applied on Andy Farrell’s side proving too much to handle.
Luke Cowan-Dickie added a team effort in the second half to secure the win, with his score from a driving maul sandwiched between Irish tries from Robbie Henshaw and Andrew Porter to give the scoreline a respectable angle that it certainly did not deserve.
“We played with a lot of control,” hailed Jones, whose side can still win the Championship if France slip up over the final two weekends and Wales and Italy both go the same way as Ireland did.
“We read the conditions well, read the referee well and at halftime if it was a cricket game, we could have declared.”
The comprehensive victory backed up Jones’ claim that his side are returning to the performance levels they set in Japan at the World Cup, yet after receiving plenty of criticism for his decision to select four players outside of their natural position, Jones was happy to take a thinly-veiled swipe at his critics and particularly those within the media.
“I don’t need vindication,” he said.
“I pick the team that I think is right for the week and you guys (the media) are so clever, you’re all clever so I’ve just got to suck it all up, enjoy what you say, try to learn from you, and maybe I can pick a better team next week.”
France remain favourites to win the Six Nations as they are now the only side capable of claiming a Grand Slam, though Fabien Galthie’s side will need to see off Scotland in round four before taking on Ireland in their pivotal final match on March 14. But Jones refused to look too far ahead, insisting that Les Bleus do not figure in his thinking and that they will prepare solely to face Wales in a match where the magnitude of the occasion speaks for itself.
“We know every time England play Wales it’s the biggest game there’s ever been, so I don’t expect next Saturday week to be any different,” Jones added.
“They are playing a bit differ
ently, a bit dangerous with the ball when they again get go forward.
“They are defending a little bit differently so we will have a closer look at them.
“We had a bit of a look at them yesterday and we will have another look at them again.”
Ireland do at least still retain hope of winning the title with games at home to Italy and away to unbeaten France still to come in March.
England captain Owen Farrell, meanwhile, hailed the win and said: “We know what we are capable of, we’ve played in two games where one we didn’t show our best and the second was bad conditions. We couldn’t wait to get out against a proper opponent like Ireland.
“It’s pressure from everybody else, not us, we are unbelievably happy with how it is going inhouse — we feel we are getting better and couldn’t wait to play this game.
“It’s nothing to do with anyone on the outside, we are giving ourselves lots of confidence to rip in come kick-off.”
On having two weeks off before facing Wales, he added: “It’s another opportunity, we’ll enjoy this win first, it’s a big win for us and brilliant to be back at home. We’ll celebrate that and then get on to the next opportunity.”