AUTUMN TESTS ROUNDUP
HEAD coach Eddie Jones says he was entitled to show frustration as rusty ENGLAND opened their autumn campaign with a scrappy 21-8 win over ARGENTINA.
Nathan Hughes’ first Test try and Semesa Rokoduguni’s second-half score earned victory at Twickenham on Saturday, while Jones was caught by television slamming down his notebook and voicing his displeasure at one point.
“I don’t see there’s any reason why I shouldn’t be frustrated,” Jones said.
“We want to play well. We want to play good rugby.
“It was a grindathon. They played well. We were off the pace a little bit, but I thought there were some things we did really well.
“The reality is we haven’t played a game since March together. We had players coming back from the Lions who have done two training sessions with us.
“Our fluency and our understanding wasn’t there, which is understandable.”
England play Jones’ compatriots Australia next Saturday in a match which will offer a sterner test.
He added: “We’re hoping Australia bring their absolute best game. And see where we’re at.
“We’ve got a very clear vision of how we want to play against Australia. It should be fun.”
England rested Maro Itoje and Owen Farrell, who acted as water carrier.
One of the areas which Jones pointed to as needing to improve was the midfield axis of George Ford, who kicked 11 points, Henry Slade and Jonathan Joseph. And Farrell, who is Jones’ preferred inside centre, is widely expected to return against the Wallabies.
Jones added: “He did a great job as water boy.
“You should never do a good job at the job you’re given. He could be a good water boy next week.”
On the England midfield, Jones said: “It’s that understanding between your 10-12-13. It wasn’t quite there today.
“They just didn’t gel. These things happen. Literally we’ve had four training sessions together.
“That understanding comes from playing together, you need time together, so we’ll be so much better next week.
“In terms of looking at increasing the depth of the squad today – which again I reinforce as being the theme of 2017 – I really think we did that today.”
SCOTLAND survived a secondhalf fightback to kick off their international season with a 44-38 win over SAMOA at BT Murrayfield.
The hosts looked to be cruising to a comfortable win when 32-10 up early in the second half, but the tourists fought back gamely in Edinburgh in a match that saw 11 tries.
Two from Stuart McInally, and one each for Stuart Hogg, Huw Jones, Alex Dunbar and Peter Horne proved enough however, to secure a win in Gregor Townsend’s first home game in charge of the Dark Blues.
Brave Samoa grabbed five tries of their own through Josh Tyrell, Piu- laFaasalele, Tim Nanai-Williams, Kieron Fonotia and Ofisa Treviranus.
Nanai-Williams converted the lot and added a penalty.
ITALY beat FIJI for the first time in four years as they edged their way to a 19-10 victory at the Stadio Angelo Massimino.
Early penalties were exchanged before extensive pressure from the Azzurri saw Simone Ferrari cross for his first Test try after 30 minutes, with Carlos Canna booting the extras.
But Fiji levelled on the stroke of half-time with Leone Nakarawa going over with Ben Volavola converted to send them to the break at 10-10.
Canna added a further two penalties after the interval to move Italy ahead before Ireland-born Ian McKinley – who lost the sight in his left eye six years ago – came off the bench to make his Test debut and booted a last-minute penalty to wrap up victory.
IRELAND produced a scintilating display to thrash SOUTH AFRICA 38-3 in Dublin.
Ireland led 14-0 at the interval thanks to a try from wing Andrew Conway and three Johnny Sexton penalties.
Elton Jantjies put the Springboks’ first points on the board with a penalty but that would be their only score.
Rhys Ruddock, Rob Herring and Jacon Stockdale added further tries for the Irish with Sexton and his replacement Joey Carbery adding the other points with the boot.