Jones: England’s young players are not hungry enough
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The feel-good factor surrounding England’s 2-0 series victory against Argentina did not last long. Sam Underhill, the 11th player to make their debut on this tour, had not yet started his initiation song, a Marvin Gaye number, when Eddie Jones began popping celebratory balloons and deflating egos.
In spite of 30 absentees, Jones was far from content with back-toback victories over their World Cup pool opponents. Four and 10-point margins, he claims, should have been more decisive. Nor did he deem the posse of young players blooded on this tour hungry enough.
Such is Jones’s way. So relentless is he in his quest to deliver the 2019 World Cup that he can accept no grandstanding, no self-adulation. Just when his players are expecting a pat on the back for only a second series victory won in Argentina than they receive an impromptu kick up the backside.
“The biggest thing I have learnt is that we are going to have to improve,” Jones said. “We are not bulletproof at the moment. To win at the World Cup you need to be bulletproof.”
A lot of this is an act, a means of reminding his squad here and his 15 Lions in New Zealand that the bar is forever moving. There was no disguising his satisfaction at his side’s resilience. In a pair of rollercoaster matches in San Juan and Santa Fe, England lost the lead on seven occasions but recovered. Even if the second Test lacked the dramatic denouement provided by Denny Download Shazam for free from the App Store or Google Play Store
Solomona’s score, a combination of a rolling maul finished by Will Collier and a George Ford dropped goal was no less clinical in its execution.
“We have adapted, we haven’t played great rugby but we have played smart rugby – we have been able to change our game on the run and come up with different ways of winning,” Jones said. “An England side does not tend to win a game like this, 35-25, but we have been able to score 73 points against a side who were semi-finalists in the World Cup in 2015, with a very young team. The ability to score points, to find a way to win the game has been absolutely outstanding.”
The other great success has been the integration of 11 new faces into international rugby. Jones wanted to uncover at least three players on this tour whom he could take to the 2019 World Cup. That quota should be filled easily.
The performances of Underhill, 20, and Tom Curry, 19, indicate that the vexed question of a genuine English openside should be dormant for at least a decade. Blindside Mark Wilson proved a viable alternative to Chris Robshaw, Harry Williams has provided welcome depth at tighthead, while Piers Francis, who contributed two assists and a try, comes firmly into a congested midfield equation.
Yet Jones could not resist issuing a warning to those same young thrusters. “I think the younger players are not hungry enough,” Jones said. “They find it too easy. They play in the under-20s, they become World Cup champions, they get a contract straight away. That doesn’t happen in any other country in the world.”
Yesterday Jones held one-to-one feedback sessions with the 32 players who toured here, including the