‘Clever’ tinkering at fault when we need consistency

EDDIE JONES can have no excuses for this defeat. He tried to be clever with his selection and it didn’t come off. With the talent and depth that England have, finishing third in the Six Nations is simply not good enough.

The coaching team has plenty to answer for. I imagine Jones will have some very uncomfortable conversations with the RFU over the next few days.

Some of the selection calls have been baffling. There’s no consistency. Why does Jones keep changing the spine of the team? You don’t see Jurgen Klopp tinkering with the core of his team when Liverpool have a big game.

South Africa had consistency when they won the World Cup. You knew their hooker, second-row, No8, scrum-half, fly-half, and fullback. That consistency made them successful. The players knew each other inside out and that helps breed confidence in each other.

I had my doubts about scrum-half Harry Randall before this tournament but he’s shown real progression. So why drop him? Changes like this mean you have to start again. It felt like desperate damage limitation and it didn’t come off.

You could see England’s game plan straight away — to kick the leather off the ball and try and pressure France into errors.

France did seem nervy early on, but they also looked dangerous in attack and it wasn’t long before they clicked.

England didn’t help themselves. Ben Youngs produced one poor kick and George Furbank made a basic error by having his foot in touch. The only tactic seemed to be kick and hope Freddie Steward could get it back!

I just don’t see the point in selecting Steward on the wing. He’s Eng

land’s stand-out full-back but he’s not one of the country’s best wingers. If it’s a World Cup final tomorrow then he’s pretty much an automatic selection at 15. But we don’t know who the second winger to Jack Nowell is because there’s been no consistency in selection.

If you want to select a new winger look at actual wingers such as Louis Lynagh, Ollie Hassell-Collins, Adam Radwan or Cadan Murley. By picking Steward on the wing because he can chase kicks, what message is that sending to the others about the faith or lack of faith in them?

If Jones doesn’t think he has any wingers who can challenge in the air, then England are in trouble.

Looking ahead, I don’t think Owen Farrell coming straight back in at 12 is the answer. Henry Slade and Joe Marchant haven’t formed much of a partnership because they are too similar. I don’t think Farrell is the solution because then you end up with too many distributors and that dilutes the impact of fly-half Marcus Smith. Something is going to have to change.