Jones tells supporters to keep faith after humiliating defeat
Eddie Jones urged England supporters to keep faith with his developing team after they suffered a humiliating 52-21 defeat by a 14-man Barbarians side at Twickenham ahead of their tour of Australia.
Jones vowed that England would not be on the receiving end of similar scorelines over a three-test series against the Wallabies after suffering his heaviest defeat as head coach, although he did admit that a number of injury worries would be assessed before finalising his travelling squad.
In England’s first match since losing 25-13 to France in March, their third defeat of the Six Nations, they were again beaten by a coaching team of Fabien Galthie and Shaun Edwards. The Barbarians plundered eight tries despite Will
Skelton receiving a red card close to the half-hour mark. Jones stressed that the result would have no bearing on this summer.
“No one is happy about it but again we look at it in the light of what we’re trying to do,” he said. “There’s a contextual situation here. I know you’re struggling to understand it, but we’re trying to build a new team, play a different way, a style that suits our players, and there are going to be some ups and downs.
“We’re not going to Australia and get beaten by 50 and run the ball from our own 22, but we have a style of play that we want to keep developing now and we’ll pick and choose when we use it.”
Alex Dombrandt, who withdrew before kick-off with a knee problem, has added to England’s concerns, while George Ford and Billy Vunipola are also injury doubts.
England were already deep within humiliation territory when the 14-man Barbarians really started to rub it in. First George Kruis decided to backheel a conversion, before the whole Barbarians team led a Viking thunderclap of the second row’s next two-pointer. How Eddie Jones must have been squirming in his seat in the midst of his heaviest defeat as England head coach.
Kruis has been a magnificent servant to English rugby and fully deserved this type of send-off in his final match, but for an England team of any description to have the mickey taken out of them like this is close to unacceptable.
This was England’s largest defeat by the Barbarians, who paid rich tribute to the late Phil Bennett with some dazzling tries, particularly the last two, by Max Spring and Antoine Hastoy, when someone had flicked the off switch on England’s defence. “We’ve been watching clips all week of him, obviously the famous [1973] try in Cardiff has been played numerous times,” Shaun Edwards, the Barbarians defence coach, said. “I was lucky enough to meet him on numerous occasions in Wales and one thing that always shone out was his humility, for such a great player.”
As much as Jones has claimed it was an “England XV” and this constituted a “festival” of rugby, his team still contained many seasoned Test players such as Tom Curry, Sam Underhill and Courtney Lawes off the bench. Even more concerning than the eight tries they conceded was the manner in which the pack were totally bullied at the breakdown and at the set-piece, even after Will Skelton was sent off for a high tackle late in the first half.
Jones had billed this match as the teabag test ahead of his squad announcement for the Australia tour this morning. If it was, then England poured the milk in first and then split the teabag. In the first half, England directly gifted the Barbarians three tries – Jonny May conceded a penalty try and was sent to the sin-bin for his deliberate knockon before Harry Randall and Mark Atkinson threw intercepts.
The second half was similarly rancid as England fell off the pace.
A first-time viewer would have assumed that it was they rather than the Barbarians who had spent most of the week on the sauce in Monaco.
The France-come-barbarians coaching team of Fabien Galthie and Edwards will have enjoyed a good helping of schadenfreude with the red wine yesterday evening.
Presumably Jones will have spent a good part of yesterday evening using a black marker pen to scrub out a few of his original squad selections.
Harlequins prop Will Collier was hooked after just 27 minutes, only to return when Patrick Schickerling was concussed by Skelton. Marcus Smith, despite missing all his conversions (Kruis was three from three), was a shining light in attack, with full-back Tommy Freeman and Joe Cokanasiga showing up well in patches.
Smith knocked England into the lead with a penalty before May conceded a penalty try when he could not resist deflecting Spring’s intended pass for Damian Penaud. It quickly got worse as Charles Ollivon picked off Randall. The France flanker had faster options on his shoulder but rode Randall’s attempted tackle like he was a hyena on a wildebeest’s back.
Jones showed his displeasure by hooking Collier, although he could have made a sacrificial lamb out of at least 12 other players. Smith reduced the deficit with a penalty and then came a moment that may have lightened Jones’s gloom. Smith dummied his way past Virimi Vakatawa and fed Freeman. The Northampton full-back drew the last man before offloading to Cokanasiga.
England’s cause was aided by the fact the television match official spotted Skelton’s off-the-ball tackle on Schickerling, which resulted in a red card for Skelton and a quick return from his exile for Collier. Still England could not stop being their own worst enemies as Atkinson threw a high, looping pass inside his own 22 that was knocked up and gathered by Penaud.
Jones’s disposition would have only worsened at the start of the second half when Levani Botia burst into an ocean of space beside an unguarded ruck. He was brought down just short, but scrum-half Baptiste Couilloud sniped over from the subsequent ruck.
There were bursts of sunlight amid the gloom for England. Smith fashioned a try for May before scoring himself. But every step forward was met by at least two backwards, particularly at the breakdown where the Barbarians were pinching possession with impunity. Penaud made amends for being stepped by May with an acrobatic finish in the corner before Nolann Le Garrec’s cute chip was grounded by replacement fly-half Louis Carbonel.
Sekou Macalou led a breakout from his own 22, Le Garrec cleverly kicked on and Spring finished. By now England had given up tackling as Hastoy finished another flowing move. Kruis rubbed salt in the wounds with his conversions.