EDDIE’S DAY OF RECKONING
Some already had their doubts about England’s progress under fiery Australian but the heat will be turned up following...
EDDIE JONES stood in the England coaches’ box at the back of the first tier of seats at Murrayfield, his arms folded tightly across his chest, his expression set and inscrutable. Even when the final whistle blew, he showed little emotion. He made a point of shaking hands with his assistants, folded his jacket over his left arm and strode away to the dressing room.
Jones had just seen his England team humbled 25-13 by a swashbuckling Scottish side who thrilled the home crowd with some terrific running rugby and some beautifully bold moves. Scotland had not scored this many tries against England since 1986. This stunning reverse has blown what was already a compelling NatWest 6 Nations tournament wide open.
The order that Jones has created in this England team since he took over two years ago, the stability, the purpose, the progress, had been overwhelmed by a first half of storming, uproarious Scottish brilliance that looked to English eyes like a terrible form of anarchy.
Terrible in that it was irresistible but nevertheless wonderful in its abandon, an abandon that England will never embrace under Jones. Some of Scotland’s running rugby was breathtaking and one long pass by Finn Russell to Huw Jones on the half hour was a piece of creativity that cut England wide open and led to a second try of the match for the Scots.
England, usually so strong and unbreakable under Jones, were reeling. Outplayed for most of the first half hour, pulverised by the speed and power of the Scots at the breakdown, they had conceded a third try two minutes before half time that symbolised their vulnerability.
A third try? That was three more than England had conceded here in the last 14 years. When Jones burst through midfield and hurtled past England’s 22, it seemed as if his surge would be halted by Mike Brown and Anthony Watson, who lay in wait. But instead of trying to look for support, Jones ran straight at them. Or rather, he ran in between them.
Brown tried to tackle him from one side, Watson stumbled and fell on the other and Jones just kept powering forward, refusing to go down. When he did eventually fall, he was close enough to the try line to reach out his hand and plant the ball over it. The conversion made the half-time score 22-6.
‘We need to go away and work out why we gave away so many penalties,’ Eddie Jones said afterwards. ‘We didn’t rise to the challenge but there are still two games to go.’
It was the worst result of Jones’ tenure as England head coach. There aren’t many other candidates to choose from. England had only lost once, to Ireland, in their previous 25 matches. No one saw this result or this performance coming. Not really, although some have been suggesting for a while that England have begun to plateau. By their own high standards, they were desperately poor in the first half.
The Scots were more inventive and, most worryingly for Jones, they were hungrier. Sure, they had the backing of the home crowd but that hasn’t bothered England for more than a decade so there was
little reason why it should start now. When Jones went over for his opening score early in the half, it was the first try Scotland had scored against England at Murrayfield since 2004. England had not lost here since 2008 but now the fears of the home side were being dispelled as confidence filled their sails and the crowd roared its encouragement.
And even as England tried to force their way back into the game, they were undone by more shortcomings. With 14 minutes left and Scotland’s lead reduced to nine by a try from Owen Farrell, second-half replacement Sam Underhill was penalised for a dangerous tackle.
The no- arms challenge earned him a yellow card and when Russell kicked the resulting penalty, Scotland led 25-13 and England’s chances of overhauling them disappeared into the gathering gloom of early evening in the Scottish capital. The bigger question is whether this was just a bad day at the office, a freak result, a blip in a run of English dominance that will soon be overcome and forgotten.
Or was it something more? Was it indicative of an England side whose pace of progress has begun to slow in this Six Nations. Was it the first hint that the Eddie Jones effect is starting to wear off?
England looked vulnerable for periods of their unconvincing victory over Wales at Twickenham a fortnight ago and were indebted to one controversial decision in particular that went their way.
Yesterday, the big decisions went against them and they had no answer to bad fortune, or to the Scots.
It may be that this defeat persuades Jones to usher in the second phase of his spell as England coach that he has talked about before. There will be more questions now about whether Dylan Hartley will remain as captain. He did not even last his customary hour yesterday and it has long been thought that he will not keep his place until the World Cup next year. Maybe Jones will decide now is the time to act.
The coach himself has been showing signs of strain. Always combative, he has seemed particularly confrontational in some of his press conferences in recent weeks. It is almost as if he, too, can sense that things have started to slip.
As the Scotland players did a lap of honour to the strains of Living on a Prayer, it felt as if this might be a pivotal moment in England’s journey towards Japan 2019. Some of the team may fear a reckoning.
Jones may have appeared serene during the match. His reaction is likely to be rather more charged.