NATIONS2018 Jones launches light at the end
THE Six Nations probe into the tunnel incident ahead of kick-off at Murrayfield is nothing compared to the internal inquiry which has been begun by Eddie Jones into England’s Calcutta Cup mugging.
After the earthquake in Wales last week, came the landslide in Scotland as the magic carpet England have ridden under Jones was pulled from under their feet.
The consistency of performance that has been the hallmark of England under the Australian collapsed under fire from an inspired home side, with the result the heaviest loss against Scotland for 32 years.
England’s head coach has identified three primary areas for investigation when the squad reassembles in Oxford this week. “We lacked intensity and we’ve got to find out why. We got beaten at the breakdown and we’ve got to find out why. We lacked proper spacing in defence and we’ve got to find out why,” said Jones. The REPORTS presented the Scottish attack with the gaps Finn Russell was only too keen to exploit, was always going to be of paramount importance against a side coached by Gregor Townsend.
Yet eyes were taken off the ball. So too with the approach. The intensity shortfall, which allowed Scotland to race into what proved to be an insurmountable 22-6 lead at half-time, Jones blamed on himself. England, he acknowledged, had got their preparation wrong.
Psychologically, they appeared complacent after so much success for so long against the Scots and on a physical level the cocktail of full-on scrummaging sessions with Georgia mid-Six Nations allied to the usual lung-bursting training proved toxic.
England, in comparison to the Scots, looked flat – particularly up front. “That’s probably the most disappointing thing,” said Mako Vunipola. “You can make all these excuses about us being due a flat game – that’s not the mentality that we want.
“We want to go out there and put on our best performance every time. We didn’t really give ourselves a chance.”
England could still have pulled the game out of the fire after Owen Farrell’s try if Danny Care’s interception score had been allowed to stand by Nigel Owens but the referee had already pulled up Joe Launchbury for slowing the ball down at the ruck.
It was one of 13 penalties conceded by England including the dangerous tackle by Sam Underhill on Jamie Bhatti in the final quarter which earned him a yellow card. Ironically, Underhill looks the likely beneficiary from the loss, with the breakdown issues underlining the need for a
specialist No7. England’s ambition of a Grand Slam has gone and, with Ireland pocketing a bonus point against Wales, the championship now looks a struggle too.
They will need to match or better Ireland’s match result in round four and then put them to the sword in the final game at Twickenham on St Patrick’s Day to retain the title.
“You want to go out and win a Grand Slam but we’re not out of this competition and we’ll keep on fighting,” said Robshaw. “We’ve got a couple of bits to fix up.” An understatement.
SCOTLAND: