Eddie hails players for sticking to gameplan
England coach Eddie Jones last night hailed his players for sticking to their gameplan in Dublin, but did not think Ireland had been caught by surprise.
“I’m not sure, they’re a well-coached, well-drilled side,” said Jones.
“We want to play good England rugby and good England rugby involves attacking the kicks, putting pressure on the opposition.
“We tried to execute a plan to find the space in the Ireland defensive line and I think we did that really well.”
Jones paid tribute to winger May, who scored the game’s first try, and joked a former prop must have given Vunipola the man-ofthe-match award.
“I thought May was outstanding. It must have been an old prop that picked man of the match, was it?”
Jones added England will now quickly shift their focus towards next opponents France.
“100%. They played really well against Wales. Probably unlucky to lose the game. We’re going to have a short break now and then we’ll rip in on Tuesday.”
Meanwhile, England’s two-try centre Henry Slade was delighted with his side’s first win in Ireland during the Six Nations era.
“It’s great to come over here and get a win,” he said.
“Obviously they are a top side and it’s a great place to come and play and I thought the way we dug in today, we had a lot of defending to do.
“It’s credit to the boys. We put in a big shift in the last couple of weeks in camp. We’re just really pleased to get the win.
“We had two weeks gearing up for this game and we knew exactly how we wanted to play. We executed it perfectly and the boys through one to 23 put their bodies on the line and it was really enjoyable to play in.”