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Jones: 'We left 15 points out there at least from our calculation'
Eddie Jones has suggested England should have been comfortable winners of last Saturday’s Guinness Six Nations opener in Edinburgh, claiming his team left at least 15 points behind them in the Murrayfield match they went on to lose 20-17 having led 17-10 with just over 15 minutes remaining. The Australian has copped heavy criticism in the aftermath of the defeat which was his team’s third consecutive round one loss in the championship in the last three years.
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England are now preparing to pick up the pieces when they play Italy away in Rome in round two of the tournament next Sunday and Jones is hoping his attack can be sharper to ensure there is no repeat of the chance-taking failures that left them vulnerable to Scotland’s perfectly-times ambush.
“The thing we missed out on Saturday, we probably left 15 points out there at least from our calculation and if we were a bit sharper with that execution, a bit tidier around the breakdown we would have been able to convert those opportunities to points, so that is an easy thing to fix.
“We are attacking in a different way – well, we are trying to attack in a different way and we had a little bit of lack of cohesion in some of the areas and we will make sure we will tidy that up for this week.”
Jones was criticised for numerous decisions he made during the game, especially his choice to take off on-song out-half Marcus Smith with England ahead by seven points and looking set to take what would have been a good-value win before they imploded in the closing 15 minutes.
“Look, I am the best coach in the world with hindsight,” he shrugged, dismissing his critics. “I have done a few TV commentaries and I was the smartest coach in the world. But I made a decision on game day, I don’t have any regrets, I don’t look back. I am looking forward to Italy.
“We’re disappointed by the result against Scotland, particularly given the (positive) way we played in the first 60 minutes of the game, but we have drawn a line in the sand on that and we have moved onto Italy and our aim is to make sure we light up Rome this week with a really good, energetic purposeful performance to build on what we did against Scotland.”
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England will confirm their squad for next weekend later on Tuesday once a series of medicals and covid tests are complete but Jones confirmed Lewis Ludlam is out with a rib cartilage injury and has been replaced by Joe Launchbury, while Courtney Lawes is rated as less than a 50 per cent chance of being available.
“We have got a great opportunity on Sunday playing against Italy who put in a spirited performance on Sunday against France. It is our next opportunity. We know we have got to tidy up a few areas of our game that we didn’t get right against Scotland and like any young team it is not a linear progression.
“We’d love it to be linear but you have your little ups and downs and we had a down against Scotland and now we have got to make sure we get an up against Italy on Sunday.”
Comments on RugbyPass
Beautiful shot from Finau, end of story. Gutted for Shaun Stevenson though.
4 Go to commentsThe Chiefs definitely didn’t win ugly. They had the superior scrum, a dominant lineout, and their defence was excellent once the Waratahs scored their two tries (thanks to some lucky refereeing calls mind you). They put pressure on the Waratahs lineout throughout the game, and the mind boggles as to why the referee did not award a yellow card or a penalty try against the Waratahs for repeated scrum infringements on their own try line before Narawa’s first try. And the Chiefs were slick with their passing and running angles on attack. It was a dominant performance all round, even with many questionable refereeing decisions.
1 Go to commentsWasnt late. Ref 2 assistants andTMO all saw it so who are you to say it was?
4 Go to commentsAre the Brumbies playing the Blues twice in a row?
4 Go to commentsBig difference from the Saders. Forwards really muscled up and laid a solid platform. Scooter brought some steel and I liked the loosie combination. Newell has been rather disappointing this season but stepped up big time - happy also to see Franks dot down. He should do that more often! Reihana had a good game and there seems to be more flair and invention with him in the saddle. McNicoll plays well from the back and is reliable plus inventive when he joins the line. Keep it up chaps!
3 Go to comments🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
30 Go to commentsJe suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
4 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusaders , you can keep going.
3 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
30 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
30 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
30 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to comments