Eddie will know that he has dodged a bullet... and has work to do
I HAVE been saying — and writing — all week that I would be happy with an ugly England win but I didn’t think it would be that ugly!
Make no mistake England dodged a bullet last night, there could have been no complaints if they lost that game.
That’s the poorest that England have played under Eddie Jones. They were really sloppy and it was very instructive to see England struggle in a match when, for much of the time, their pack was being taken to the cleaners.
You don’t often see that with England and it was only in the final quarter when their bench made an impact and Maro Itoje moved back into the second row that England exerted any control.
Conversely France took all their best players off — Baptiste Serin, Camille Lopez, Gael Fickou. I’ve no idea what was happening there.
For the first hour, the entire team looked a bit lethargic but that seemed to manifest itself in the back row more than anywhere.
Clearly it was a new unit and I thought perhaps it would take time to gel but that was just a lack of energy and dynamism that surprised me, even Itoje was pretty ordinary by his standards.
If I’m honest, I would have brought James Haskell on at half-time. Something just wasn’t right but with very limited game time recently, I suspect Eddie was a bit cautious of doing that.
England were poor elsewhere, though. Six penalties in the first half slowed the momentum and they coughed up possession to a France team that was winning the battle up front.
Without the go forward that England usually have, George Ford and Owen Farrell were hardly a factor in attack in the first half. Except for the attack from deep with Eliott Daly early on, Ben Youngs didn’t give England that edge at nine they have enjoyed in the last year either.
This was of course always, potentially, a banana skin.
It looked a little bit brighter straight after the break but, for a moment, it looked like England had put some daylight between them and France when Daly appeared to touch down before the TMO showed his feet trailing in touch.
An interesting one. I am a big Daly fan, he had a big future but, for me, he is a centre even though thus far he had been a jack of all trades and can do a turn at full-back, wing and centre. But wing is not his specialist position and it showed.
Out-and-out wings have mastered the jacknife finish these days. They kick their feet up into the air so they can’t be in touch even though their feet are over the touchline, and then bend and stretch for the touch touchdown. Its become a commonplace skill and you expect a Test-match wing to employ that.
That might have been England’s all-time record of 15 wins on the trot but it was a massive kick up the backside and wake-up call.
Nobody concerned with the squad can really be happy with that and I expect that to be a massive motivator in training ahead of Wales. I was also very happy to hear Eddie take on all the responsibility.
It has, however, taken the mystique away from this team. Everybody in the Six Nations will feel they can beat them. Equally, I know for a fact England can play much better than that.