Yes, Eddie, defeat by Scotland was all your fault
THE fall-out from England’s Calcutta Cup defeat to Scotland hangs over the opening two rounds of their 2021 Six Nations campaign like the sword of Damocles. England over-running an Italy side that has not managed to win in the Six Nations since 2015, will not lay to rest the concerns about the direction of travel under Eddie Jones.
This was highlighted by the lacklustre loss to the Scots, and then fuelled further by the selection stasis which saw him swap around a few stalwarts against Italy rather than blooding young talent that could help to revitalise his team.
Why bring back the George FordOwen Farrell 10-12 combo, on which he already has a bible-sized dossier, when he should be finding out more about Ollie Lawrence at inside centre. Why not start Paulo Odogwu on the wing with Anthony Watson on the bench, and do likewise with Jack Willis getting a start at blindside and Courtney Lawes coming on after an hour?
It means that England will struggle to make a statement of any sort until they play Wales in Cardiff in a fortnight, midway through the tournament. So, where, apart from five years on, are we now, with Eddie Jones’ stewardship of England?
On the surface, it might appear like a draconian over-reaction to question the credentials of Jones so soon after winning the two tournaments England have competed in since their World Cup final no-show against South Africa.
However, there was not much to celebrate about winning the Covidinterrupted 2020 Six Nations, despite England clawing their way back to win the title after a muted, disjointed start against France.
There was even less reason to break out the bunting after the lucky escape in December, which saw England snatch the Autumn Nations Cup from a French reserve side which outplayed them in much the same way as Scotland did last weekend.
From verve to straight-jacket
The root cause of this lack of enthusiasm is that England have become a dull, stodgy side since the World Cup, playing with very little verve. The high peaks of their fizzing World Cup victories over Australia and New Zealand have disappeared over the horizon, and Jones and his team appear to be stuck in a rut with inspiration from either the head coach, or his players, in very short supply.
On the pitch, and off it, they are like a team struggling to break free of a straight-jacket into which they had been buckled by a coach who wants maximum control.
Jones says that the game is cyclical and that being successful right now is all about a reliance on tactical kicking and collision-winning power. If the tactical kicking is laser-beam accurate, along with the chase, and the power produces fast ball, it has ever been thus – so there is nothing particularly profound in this observation. Yet, it becomes deeply worrying when a head coach like Jones uses it as an excuse for his team’s sudden lack of attacking ability.
Where Scotland produced a handful of scoring chances against England, finishing only one of them, the men in white did not come within a mile of creating a clear-cut chance over the entire 80 minutes.
The French have also ridden roughshod over Jones’ contention that the international game is in a stage of tactical lockdown. They did it by thumping a callow Italy 50-10, scoring seven tries in Rome – which is almost double the number that England managed against the Italians when landing the Championship in October.
Too often the England coach appears to be preoccupied – at least in his public utterances – with either scoring points against the media, or falling back on stock excuses when his team underperforms.
We have heard the words, “I accept I didn’t prepare the team well enough”, on multiple occasions now from Jones. On the surface, a coach saying that the buck stops with him is admirable. However, it becomes less commendable, with hints of glib arrogance, if it is used to bring down the portcullis on any further dialogue – such as a straightforward explanation of what he got wrong, and how he intends to remedy it.
There is also a contrived element to players reading from the same script. An example is Billy Vunipola blaming himself for the loss to Scotland not only because he was sin-binned for a lazy hightackle, but also because, “a lot of my work is putting England on the front foot, and I didn’t do that”.
What we know for sure is that the England No.8 was not match-sharp, and the most likely explanation, that he has played just once in the last two months, was never mentioned.
Honesty best before, not after
There is a sense that honesty, whether from Big Billy or other influential figures in the England squad, should have been a driving force before the opening round, rather than after it.
The pre-Scotland preparation should also have featured Jones impressing on his players that no side can win a title, let alone a Grand Slam, without the twin engines of a driven desire to be the best – and remain the best – as well as the discipline to achieve it. One of the issues that Jones frequently overlooks is the necessity of competition for places within the England squad.
The absence of challengers to
Billy Vunipola is one of many examples, with the two leading Premiership No.8s in the last couple of seasons, Alex Dombrandt (Harlequins) and Sam Simmonds (Exeter) not making the cut for the tournament.
You could argue the same for the Farrell-Ford monopoly at fly-half, and the Ben Youngs sinecure at scrum-half.
This is the second Six Nations in succession where England have started as favourites and been brought crashing down at the first hurdle.
Jones can be thankful Italy gives his team the chance to regroup, but even so, with awkward away games to come against Wales and Ireland, with a French team full of confidence coming to Twickenham in between those trips, their chance of making a similar comeback to win this year’s title is a long shot.
This is because the confidence in the England head coach to adapt and turn his side into world beaters by 2023 World Cup has taken a battering. Apart from the turbocharged start to his tenure in 2016, England have fallen short in too many big games to encourage the belief that Joan realise his dream of turheminto one of Rugby Union a test teams.
Nearly men where men - what’s nex
They have bearly men’ in 2017, 2019, and 2020 ‘nowhere men’ in 2018. For mosones’ tenure after 2016 England cleaned up against seconision internation al sides, but whey play the best in the first div wether ireland (2017, 201ales (2019), South Africa (2019),ance (2020) there is a cleat line
The losses opponents show that the is too dependent on Jones – which inevitable give level of control the head coacrcises over every aspect of the
Jones has p that he can be an outstandilyst and tactician with his which dismantled th blacks in the 2019 World Cuni final in Yokohama the parnt example.
The opposie of the spectrum is that J force of personality that for players, and coaches, is little room for manoeuvre. you follow Fast
Eddie’s’ blueprint, or you will be out of selection contention fast, as Danny Cipriani and Ben Spencer can confirm.
This explains why, when Jones has key players he trusts to do the job the way he wants – like Farrell, Ford, Youngs and Billy Vunipola – he sticks with them come hell or high water, to the extent that inform players are bypassed.
The concept that elite players should be very good at reading a game for themselves, and picking the best option – which means that fundamentally international coaches are fine-tuners – is not the Jones way.
He wants an all-encompassing control of the England squad, whether on-field or off-field. It is why he leads the communications agenda, and why he is the main face of the England side, keeping a tight rein on access to players and to his coaching and backroom staff.
For instance,
Scott Wisemantel, below left, the attack coach with the Aussie surfer karma who sharpened the England backs to a fine point during the 2019 World Cup – and was highly-rated by the players – barely gave an interview during his 18 months in the camp.
The ‘Fast Eddie Show’
Jones, below, looms over the whole operation so large that captains like Farrell, and Dylan Hartley before him, as well as other leading stars, have been low profile compared to other international teams. This offers an explanation of why, when England stall in big matches, you have the feeling that the leaders on the pitch are not leading, but waiting for the coach to tell them what do.
It is why, on every occasion that England have been disrupted in an area considered to be a strength, the players freeze, unable to adapt and work out an alternative plan. In Rugby
Union that is a huge handicap, and although Jones identified the lack of leadership when he started the England job, he has had very little success in finding a remedy.
It has been one of the main impediments to England achieving the greatness that Jones craves – and yet, his unwillingness to loosen the control valve has contributed to his team’s shortfalls in the mental and tactical mindset required by champions.
Given the number of times that Jones, by his own admission, has failed to prepare England properly for big games, there must also be lessons that he is finding difficult to absorb and act on.
There is no excuse for a professional team being flat going into a tournament like the Six Nations, which is the peak of the elite game, in which every match counts.
Pre-match body language is not always an absolutely reliable register of mindset, but it is often not a bad yardstick. It was noticeable last Saturday at Twickenham that Scottish voices were raised loud during a vigorous warm-up session, with the noise bouncing around the empty stands.
There was an urgency about the Scots in their movement, as well as their encouragement to teammates. Meanwhile, at the other end, the England players ambled around doing a fair imitation of having a kick-about in the park. It was a far cry from the all-in all-action warmups conducted by Dave Reddin, the strength and conditioning coach of the 2003 world champion outfit under Clive Woodward.
Reinvention, or curtain call
It signals, just like England’s late arrival at the stadium before the final in Japan, that while Jones is a stickler for match-day tactical blueprints being known inside-out, his attention to detail in other key areas is not as rigorous.
A tiny minority of coaches have managed to reinvent themselves by challenging their players to reach for the sky season after season – notably club football coaches like Sir Alex Ferguson and Pep Guardiola – but most find it out of their reach. Many more performances like that against Scotland will put Jones in the latter category.
It could be that as Jones enters his sixth season as England coach, the messages are no longer getting through to his squad, and he cannot change the script. He will have to prove the doubters wrong – but whether or not he succeeds, it illustrates why it was unwise for the RFU chief executive Bill Sweeney to give Jones a contract through to the 2023 World Cup last April.
It would have been much smarter for the RFU to keep their options open until the end of this Six Nations – as stipulated by his previous contract – and to take a view with two years remaining.
Instead, should the RFU wish to change course by appointing a new coach after the tournament, it will probably cost them £1.5m to pay off Jones at a time when the game is haemorrhaging money.
Given the multi-millions which have been spent on the England team in RFU payments to Premiership clubs for player release, as well as England player match fees at £25,000 per game, and salaries that make Jones and his support staff by far the best paid in the world, this is not a time for short change.
English rugby is desperate for uplift. It has never needed another World Cup-winning team more than it does now.