Jones: It was a horror show FRUSTRATIONS BOIL OVER AFTER DEFEAT No 6
RUGBY UNION
EDDIE JONES owned up to an England “horror show” as South Africa won the series with a match to spare.
In a nightmarish repeat of their Ellis Park collapse a week ago, Jones’ team opened up a big early lead only to cough it up again with shocking indiscipline.
So much for England’s bold pre-tour assertion that they would sweep the series 3-0. They might get the margin right but they are miles off being on the right end of it.
At the final whistle their frustration boiled over, with Ben Youngs storming out of a TV interview and Joe Marler swearing at a fan before Mike Brown continued the verbal exchange as they walked down the tunnel.
Jones admitted: “It was like a horror movie wasn’t it – almost a rerun of last week. Painful, extremely painful.”
Defeat was bad enough given that it is England’s fifth in a row – six if you include the non-cap loss to the Barbarians. It is their worst run since 2014.
But Youngs made things worse with his post-match response – which earned him a sharp rebuke from Sir Clive Woodward.
React
“That’s taken over the match almost – you just cannot react like that,” Woodward told Sky Sports. “You have to be statesmanlike in those situations. I really didn’t like that.”
Woodward said England are now in a “big hole”, adding “They are just playing Barbarian-style rugby at the moment – and trying to be too flash. You can’t do that at that level.”
Gameplan
Most concerning of all is that they appear to have only a 20-minute gameplan before the wheels fall off. A week ago in Johannesburg they blew a 21-point first-quarter lead; here it was 12 points following superb tries by wingers Brown and Jonny May. But the Springboks knew there was no need to panic and sure enough England shot themselves in the foot through individual errors and indiscipline. The penalty count was not quite the 17 shipped seven days ago, but 13 was still too many to beat South Africa at altitude.
Jones (left) appears to have run out of answers and with the World Cup just 14 months away the Rugby Football Union has a tough decision to make.
Asked why England are unable to defend a lead, he replied: “I wish I knew.
“It’s tough at the minute. We have been through an exceptional period and now for some reason we’re just not handling key moments of the game well. Are the players feeling more pressure now? That’s a possibility.”
Tries: Vermeulen, penalty try. Con: Pollard. Pens: Pollard 3.
Tries: Brown, May. Con: Farrell.