EDDIE: WE’LL SCRUMBACK
Bullish boss Jones backs his fearless youngsters to have learned a lesson from pain of defeat
EDDIE JONES is backing his young, inexperienced players to become stronger after the painful defeat at Murrayfield.
In 2020, England were beaten in their Six Nations opener and went on to win the Championship but last year finished a dismal fifth after another first-day defeat. But after 23-year-old Tom Curry captained the team to an agonising loss in which 22-year-old Marcus Smith’s 17 points proved to be in vain, Jones believes his class of ’22 is made of stern stuff. He said: “The only way you learn is to be tested again but I’m sure we’ve quick learners in the team. “You only have to look at the development of Marcus Smith (left with Curry) since the summer.
“He’s come on leaps and bounds and is going to be an outstanding No.10 for us.”
He also hailed the progress of 21-year-old Freddie Steward at full-back, adding: “They still have things to improve on, but the way their learning curve is going is absolutely outstanding.”
Asked to pinpoint the one quality his developing squad would need to show in order to ensure the late collapse in Scotland did not leave any lasting scars, Red Rose coach Jones had no hesitation.
“It’s always resilience, it’s always resilience,” he said.
“Some of the players are going to get hammered by you guys, some of them are going to get hammered by social media, and it’s the ability to stay focused, pay attention to what’s important, keep developing their game, keep working hard.
“We have some fine young players and I have the greatest confidence they will be able to deal with this really well.”
After Luke Cowan-Dickie conceded a penalty try and was given a yellow card, a late Finn Russell penalty sealed a 20-17 Calcutta Cup triumph for the Scots.
And Jones admitted it was galling to see his men have to be magnanimous in defeat.
But he claimed to have been impressed with the way
they dealt with the hostility of a packed Murrayfield.
Jones explained: “I hate to see all that smiling and clapping after the game but we’ve a young team here that will learn a lesson.
“I was really impressed how, in the first half, it didn’t look like we were playing at Murrayfield because we took it to them.
“They didn’t have any fear of the crowd or the hostile reception.
“They took to the game and we were just not quite clinical enough.
“It’s a tough lesson but we will learn from it, very quickly.” Jones was immediately gracious towards Scotland for lifting the Calcutta Cup (below) but, later claimed they were fortunate to come away with the trophy.
He said: “There were three points between the teams and a number of decisions which could be debated. “You’ve one lucky winner and one unlucky loser. Scotland got the rub of the green but we may get it in the next game.” England thought they might have been awarded a late penalty and a chance of salvaging something from the contest but Jones refused to have a direct pop at referee Ben O’Keeffe.
He said: “We play in a game where there is a lot of judgement and the referee has to make a judgement quickly and I am not going to criticise his decisions. “I haven’t since – when was it, 1998 – and it cost me £10,000. “I am not going to do it again, mate.”