England eyes grand slam
LONDON: England’s second straight Six Nations title secured after a 6121 thrashing of Scotland, coach Eddie Jones said there would be ‘‘a few quiet beers’’ to celebrate before attention quickly turns to next week’s grand slam trip to Dublin.
The Calcutta Cup will no doubt be tucked away safely in a Twickenham strong room — where it has spent most of the past few decades — and England’s ultraprofessional players will replace lost fluids with scientifically researched electrolyte drinks.
It is a stark contrast to that famous night almost 30 years ago when postmatch refuelling meant something very different as players from both sides hit the town in Edinburgh and ended up in hot water after manhandling the famous old silver trophy the length of a drunken Princes St pub crawl.
But in the age of professionalism, everything is about the next game — which is perfectly understandable when that game is a grand slam decider.
‘‘It’s important to acknowledge your achievements,’’ Jones said after his side ran in seven tries to notch its highest score against the Scots and match New Zealand’s tierone record of 18 consecutive wins.
‘‘We’ll have a couple of quiet drinks tonight and enjoy that and attention then turns to Ireland and that’s going to be difficult.’’
England will travel to Dublin seeking backtoback grand slams and, if it performs as it did on Saturday, it is difficult to see it failing to achieve it despite its record of only three wins from its past nine visits.
‘‘We’ve been ready to play well for a couple of weeks,’’ Jones said after watching his side hit the ground running with a thirdminute try for Jonathan Joseph and rarely look back.
‘‘Today we got a chance to play rugby and I was really pleased with their efforts. Next week is about the grand slam and we are going to focus very closely on that.’’
England was superb yesterday, with silky centre Joseph leading the way with a brilliant hattrick of tries.
But while his speed and sidesteps caught the eye, most of England’s seven scores were either from firstphase ball after a dominant lineout or through the heft of its scrum and maul.
‘‘Today we had a power advantage. Scotland struggled with that and it’s an advantage we have over other teams,’’ said Jones, who was able to throw in worldclass forwards such as Billy and Mako Vunipola from the bench plus replacement halfback Danny Care who took the score into the 60s with two late tries.
‘‘Good teams keep improving. We’ve said we want to be the No 1 team and we’re not at the moment so we’ve got to get better.’’
In the other match yesterday, France beat Italy 4018 in Rome to hand the latter the Six Nations wooden spoon and leave the host with the prospect of a second straight tournament without a victory.
The French played below their best to triumph in perfect conditions at Stadio Olimpico, running through a soft defence to score four tries and collect a bonus point.
On Saturday, George North bounced back from criticism from his own camp to crash over the try line twice as Wales beat Ireland 229 to restore home pride after two successive losses. North had been warned about his form by defence coach Shaun Edwards in the buildup to the game and responded by demonstrating his quality and power as Wales scored three unanswered tries in a hardworked win.
Victory ensured Wales would stay in the top eight of the World Rugby rankings and avoid a potential horror draw for the next World Cup in Japan.
It had lost its previous Six Nations clashes against Scotland and England and was in danger of slipping down the rankings.