SECOND BEST
Jones slams sloppy seven-try rout England ..................... 48 Samoa ........................ 14 by Gary Fitzgerald
EDDIE JONES was critical of his England “second string” even though they gave Samoa a painful Twickenham beating.
England ran in seven tries as they made it 23 Test wins from 24 under the Aussie – but the boss was less than pleased with the display.
Elliot Daly grabbed two tries and Mike Brown, Alex Lozowski, Charlie Ewels, Henry Slade and Semesa Rokoduguni also crossed the line, while George Ford kicked 13 points.
But Jones, whose side finish their autumn campaign with three wins, said: “It was a muddling game where we allowed a few chances to slip away and didn’t really impose ourselves on the game as we should.
“We have a hell of a lot of work to do. We don’t have the consistency to do the small things well. But we have two years to put that right.
“It’s a great learning experience for a lot of the guys. They go back to their clubs and now have to reflect on what they have done here.”
And captain Dylan Hartley was also unhappy with the performance. He came off the bench with Jones having given Jamie George his first start at hooker and the Northampton man said: “It wasn’t good enough. It wasn’t clinical enough. We did not execute things well and the performance needs to be better.
“We talked about doing the basics well early on but didn’t do it. We need to take a look at ourselves because discipline was an issue as well.”
England built a commanding 22-7 lead by the break when Maro Itoje picked up from a ruck and fed Brown who raced over the line in the second minute.
Samoa fly-half Tim Nanai-Williams dropped a high ball and England’s predators were on hand to make him pay dearly. Daly linked up with George and the Saracens hooker fed Lozowski, replacing Owen Farrell in the side, and he strolled over the line for his first England try. Samoa flanker Piula Faasalele bulldozed his way across the England line from 10 yards. Nanai-Williams converted and England were in a battle.
Ford kicked a penalty and the white jerseys queued up on the tourists’ try line moments later. It was left to lock Ewels to charge over for the third try.
England fans sat back at the start of the second half hoping to see their heroes put their inferior rivals to the sword. They had to wait another 20 minutes but the try-fest finally broke out when Daly cut in from the left wing, breaking the Pacific Islanders’ resistance.
England camped on the Samoan line and Slade waltzed over 10 minutes from time after the visitors had been reduced to 14 men. Try-scorer Faasalele was sin-binned for deliberate foul play at a ruck and from the resulting penalty England moved the ball to Exeter centre Slade who was unstoppable.
Samoa captain Chris Vui produced a fine finish to dive low and over for his side’s second converted try.
It only stirred England into more life with Daly scoring a superb solo try with speed and skill and replacement wing Rokoduguni strolling over in the right hand corner to round off another win.