Perfect 10?
It is 10 wins out of 10 under Jones – and still he is not happy England beat South Africa for first time since 2006 Coach demands more despite convincing victory
England head coach Eddie Jones declared his side to be “nowhere near good enough” despite ending a 10-year winless run against South Africa with a comprehensive 37-21 victory.
Two tries in either half from Jonny May, Courtney Lawes, George Ford and Owen Farrell maintained Jones’s 100 per cent record as coach. England’s winning run now stands at 11 games. Should they secure victories in their remaining fixtures of the Old Mutual Wealth Series against Fiji, Argentina and Australia then they will match the record of 14 victories in a row set under Sir Clive Woodward in 2003.
Yet Jones was far from satisfied with the performance against a poor Springbok side who capitalised on early English indiscipline before scoring secondhalf tries through Johan Goosen and Willie Le Roux when the result was already decided.
“We are pleased with the result having not beaten South Africa for 10 years but we are certainly not satisfied with our performance – there are areas of our game that really need tidying up,” Jones said. “Some of our attack was good today and some was very poor. Defensively we gave away a soft try at the end which wasn’t very good and was disappointing. Overall we got a pass mark today.
“We gave away some silly penalties defensively which we didn’t need to do. We should never give away an offside penalty. We should trust our defence. Marland [Yarde] gave one away in the air which we shouldn’t do again. It is just those little bits and pieces we need to tidy. It is the difference between playing club rugby and international rugby.” A week short of the anniversary of his appointment and Jones has transformed the mood around Twickenham, delivering a first Grand Slam in 13 years, a first ever series victory in Australia and now ending their barren run against the Springboks without five first-choice players.
“When I took the job I had no expectations,” Jones said. “All I knew was that I was inheriting a very good side that was put together by Stuart Lancaster that had oodles and oodles of talent. My job was to make sure that talent produced performances. We are starting to get there, but we have got to get better. We are nowhere near good enough at the moment.”
The challenge, according to Jones, is for the players to continue their upwards trajectory. “There has always been depth in England rugby – it is about the players having more ambition and we are starting to see players with more ambition to be top-class international players,” Jones said. “The most pleasing thing for us is to have three of the six nominations for the World Player of the Year [Maro Itoje, Billy Vunipola and Owen Farrell].”
There appeared to be no fresh injury concerns. Although Jones has said he will mix up selection against Fiji next week, he will not make a radical overhaul. “We are looking at opportunities for how we can improve in the short term and, potentially, the long term,” Jones said. “We won’t just be randomly giving caps to guys who didn’t play today. I can assure you of that.”
Just imagine if England had played well. They hammered South Africa here whilst overcoming some heavy rustiness and some awful ill discipline in the first half, with their scrummage under some pressure too.
It just shows how good they can be, or indeed already are – this was their 10th consecutive victory under Eddie Jones after all – but sadly also how poor South Africa are right now.
For the visitors did not exactly put up a frenzied fight in defence of their unbeaten record against England since 2006. They were desperately lacking in quality and also desperately dull in continuing to kick long even though England stationed Billy Vunipola in the back field to clear them up every time.
But England were obviously superior for a number of reasons. Most obvious was the speed of their ruck ball. Their breakdown work was of the highest order yet again and Tom Wood filled the James Haskell-type role in the back row very well.
It meant that scrum-half Ben Youngs could enjoy one of his finest games for England. He constantly taunted and teased the South African defence around the ruck area and created two of England’s four tries. He also boxkicked expertly.
But to enjoy such quick ball you require big runners crashing over the gain line and in the two Vunipolas, Billy and Mako, England had that. Both were titanic.
England’s line-out was also magnificently reliable, with locks Joe Launchbury and Courtney Lawes having excellent matches all round against the one area of South Africa’s team where there was real class.
Meanwhile, Chris Robshaw had one of his typically industrious games that entered the realms of eye-catching only when he clattered Rudy Paige with a huge tackle.
In truth it was all over by half-time when England led 20-9, having scored two tries. It was a fair reflection of the play because once they sorted their discipline, England were obviously in control.
That took some time, though, and in the first 20 minutes they had conceded six penalties, prompting referee Jérôme Garcès to have a word with captain Dylan Hartley.
It meant that firstly South Africa led 6-0 from a penalty and a dropped goal from Pat Lambie and then went 9-7 ahead with another Lambie penalty after Jonny May had scored England’s first try.
May’s score meant a pleasing return to international action for the Gloucester wing after more than a year out and was instant manifestation of his thrilling pace. Not many wingers would have finished this score but May did so with aplomb.
South Africa, though, will be disappointed that they permitted him space on the left, because the movement was a fairly straightforward one from a lineout with Billy Vunipola first involved and then a decoy run from Elliot Daly allowing Marland Yarde to feed Mike Brown, who found May. Owen Farrell converted brilliantly from the touchline and then added a penalty so that England led 10-9.
Then came a moment of fortune for England in their second try. Having won turnover ball it looked as though Daly had taken the wrong option in kicking ahead.
But the bounce infield was cruel for Ruan Combrinck as he was tackled by May, and then Willie le Roux could not secure the ball either, and Brown hacked ahead. He was challenged by Lambie but the ball was loose over the line and Lawes pounced for the score.
Was it a try? There was considerable television debate as to whether Brown had knocked on, but it was determined that he had not and Lawes could celebrate his first international try. Farrell converted. With his eyes shut presumably, it was that easy.
And when England were awarded another penalty on the stroke of halftime, Farrell decided that, because it
was from just near the halfway line, Daly should show his long-range prowess with his left boot.
Daly accelerates into his place kicks but he had turned away long before the ball reached the posts, knowing that it was over.
A third try arrived soon after the break and there was no luck involved this time. This was a beauty and it was all down to Youngs.
Here he sauntered away from a ruck looking for support before selling an outrageous dummy that Pieter-Steph du Toit, a lock playing in the back row, bought, and the scrum-half was away.
He did not panic and waited for a man on the inside, which happened to be George Ford, who raced away for the score. Farrell converted and then added a penalty to make it 30-9 after just 48 minutes.
It had the potential to become very messy for South Africa, but in fairness they responded. Francois Venter flipped a lovely pass out of the back of his hand – was it forward? – to Warren Whiteley and the No8 escaped down the right. Inside was replacement flyhalf Johan Goosen, who ran away to score. If that was a surprise it was nothing compared to the shock when Farrell missed a penalty afterwards.
No matter, because he was scoring a try in no time, Youngs again causing havoc around the ruck area and this time feeding Farrell, even if there might have been a hint of a forward pass. Farrell converted.
There was time for another South African try, with Goosen’s long pass finding Le Roux wide on the left, with the full-back dummying and going over. Combrinck converted. It gave the scoreline a flattering slant.
England had one last penalty and were unsure what to do with it. Farrell eventually kicked it into touch.
Would New Zealand have done that? Probably not.
Picky? Yes. England will doubtless be just as exacting upon themselves when they reconvene to review this match. The possibilities are endless and certainly exciting.