Don’t rule us out of title chase, says Eddie
EDDIE Jones warned England’s Six Nations rivals they remain in the hunt for title glory despite his team being beaten by Grand Slamchasing Wales in the cauldron of the Principality Stadium.
England saw their hopes of a Championship clean sweep ended in Cardiff as their 10-3 half-time lead evaporated thanks to a remarkable Wales comeback and they lost 21-13.
A first-half try from Tom Curry and a conversion and penalty from Owen Farrell had put England in charge, but Jones’ men couldn’t control the second period.
Wales came roaring back to score through Cory Hill and Josh Adams and defeat for England means their fate now lies in the hands of others.
Jones said: “Wales are a bloody tough side. They’ve obviously got a good chance of winning the Six Nations as they’re the only side undefeated. But we’ll be chasing them and they’ve got a couple of hard games coming up so let’s wait and see. Everyone’s smiling at the moment, but there’s always another day and another dollar so let’s wait and see.”
Jones continued: “I thought it was a very good, tough game of rugby. Wales beat us in the air and the penalty count was lopsided.
“Credit to Wales. They
played very well and deserved to win. They played smartly and we let ourselves down.
“We’ve got to keep developing. The world’s not ending. We’ll learn from today.
“We got beaten in a certain few areas and we’ll improve in those and we’ll be ready to go for Italy.”
England scored only three points after the break thanks to a penalty from Farrell and Jones’ men saw tighthead prop Kyle Sinckler concede two penalties from which Wales benefitted.
Sinckler was substituted soon after, prompting Wales head coach Warren Gatland to say: “I thought he played pretty well. He gave away a few penalties and England identified that in the coaching box.
“He’s a fantastic rugby player, but he does have a few demons to deal with.”
Jones responded: “I didn’t know Warren had a degree in clinical psychology. I might go and see him as well.
“We just felt it was the opportune time to replace Kyle. When you make a change there are a number of factors involved.
“I know you want to single him out because of what Warren said, but don’t be unfair on him. He’s a young guy on the way up. Look after him a bit.”
While England contemplate defeat, Wales are now the only team who can chase Grand Slam glory after they sealed a recordbreaking 12th straight win.
That surpasses the previous record of 11 which was set between 1907 and 1910.
“We knew exactly where
we were and I said to the players England had no idea what animal was turning up this week, but we did,” Gatland said.
“It was probably one of the best weeks I’ve had with the team. I’ve been involved with a lot of sides and Friday’s captain’s run was as good as I’ve ever seen.
“I knew we were right mentally, but we still have some improvements in our game.
“I thought we coped well with some brutal, physical tackles.
“It’s a pleasing day and we can enjoy the next couple of weeks and start focusing on Scotland.
“We’ve done the hard work now and we’ve got to go up to Scotland and play them.
“They’ll be very tough to beat up there, but the players deserve to celebrate. It was some performance.”
Gatland continued: “Everyone was writing us off before this game so we’re just happy to come under the radar.
“We’re not talking ourselves up. There’s a long way to go before the World Cup comes.
“I thought the crowd were amazing. I heard a few renditions of Swing Low and the crowd drowning them out.
“Land of my Fathers was pretty special.
“It was a tight, tense atmosphere. Us scoring early in the second half, getting back to 10-6, 10-9 and then finishing as strong as we did, brought the crowd into it for the last 20 minutes.
“Hopefully that made an impact on the players.”
Wales captain Alun Wyn Jones’ eyes were popping and veins bulging as he let out a roar to the Principality Stadium crowd at the end.
“It was probably a tad uncouth on my behalf,” said the British and Irish Lions lock. “But I’ll indulge myself for a split second.
“But we know what’s ahead of us now, we wish we were playing next Saturday to keep the momentum building.
“We’ve got the fallow week to build on this and prepare for Scotland, but this will definitely be up there as one of my better Saturdays.”
Jones believes there is still plenty of room for improvement.
“It’s funny, you come to this fixture and everything gets hyped up,” he said.
“But credit to the boys and the rest of the squad, the whole squad of 40 and the backroom staff prepared us for this.
“It is quite the milestone, it’s been a massive effort from everyone. We’ve been very real about how much we needed to improve and we did that today.
“Gats said we couldn’t give a team like England the opportunity and we took that on board into the second-half.”
Man of the match Liam Williams said: “We’ve always known we’re a great team and we didn’t play good enough in our first two games.
“Last week against France we saw England kick a lot of ball so we worked hard as a back three last week to diffuse their bombs, and it worked.”