Northern Edition
Select Edition
Northern Northern
Southern Southern
Global Global
New Zealand New Zealand
France France

England coach Jones: We've used up all our get-out-of-jail cards

England head coach Eddie Jones

Eddie Jones joked that England may not have another comeback in them after they completed a second dramatic Six Nations turnaround in as many weeks to extend their remarkable unbeaten run.

A 76th-minute try from Elliot Daly saw England edge out Wales 21-16 in Cardiff, seven days after they had prevailed by a narrow margin against France thanks to a late Ben Te’o score.

“I think we’ve used up all our get-out-of-jail cards,” said a smiling Jones in his post-match news conference on Saturday. “Against Italy [England’s next opponents], we don’t want to be in that situation we were in today.”

The reigning Six Nations champions have now won 16 Tests in a row, all but one of those successes coming under Jones, and the head coach found plenty of positives from the latest triumph.

“Firstly, our first 20 and the last 20. Our first 20 we were one or two passes away from maybe scoring three tries. And the last 20 we just showed outstanding composure to win that game of rugby,” added the Australian.

“The second thing was our grit; we’ve now become a team that is hard to beat. We’ve got characters in there that don’t know how to get beaten and that was evident.

“Obviously we want to improve our consistency, we had a good first 20, a great last 20 but the middle 40 was a bit indifferent.”

Jones, who said lock Courtney Lawes looked like a “human ice-pack” following his exertions against Wales, revealed changes to his starting XV were likely for the visit of Italy to Twickenham in a fortnight.

“We’ll look at playing a different sort of team. I’ve got some ideas of how we want to play against Italy and I want to change it up a bit,” he explained.

“I want to actually play a different sort of game against them. It’s a great chance for us to do something a bit different, so yes, there could be some selection changes. But not because I’m unhappy with the guys that played today, because I want to keep developing the team.

“It looks like we’ll have Anthony Watson back next week, which is fantastic, so we’re slowly getting a little bit stronger.”

ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
Play Video
LIVE

{{item.title}}

Trending on RugbyPass

Comments

0 Comments
Be the first to comment...

Join free and tell us what you really think!

Sign up for free
ADVERTISEMENT

Latest Long Reads

Comments on RugbyPass

T
Tom 1 hour ago
Eben Etzebeth staring at huge ban after another red card

Well… I'd say the modern Boks are not a particularly violent team but it's impossible to getaway with much violence on an international rugby field now. The Boks of yesteryear were at times brutal. Whether or not the reputation is justified, they do have that reputation amongst a lot of rugby fans.

As for point 2.. it's a tricky one, I don't want to slander a nation here. I'm no “Bok hater”, but I've gotta say some Bok fans are the most obnoxious fans I've personally encountered. Notably this didn't seem to be a problem until the Boks became the best in the world. I agree that fans from other nations can be awful too, every nation has it's fair share of d-heads but going on any rugby forum or YouTube comments is quite tedious these days owing to the legions of partisan Bok fans who jump onto every thread regardless of if it's about the Boks to tell everyone how much better the Boks are than everyone else. A Saffa once told me that SA is a troubled country and because of that the Boks are a symbol of SA victory against all odds so that's why the fans are so passionate. At least you recognise that there is an issue with some Bok fans, that's more than many are willing to concede. Whatever the reason, it's just boring is all I can tell you and I can say coming from a place of absolute honesty I encounter far, far more arrogance and obnoxious behaviour from Bok fans than any other fanbase - the kiwis were nothing like this when they were on top. So look much love to SA, I bear no hatred of ill will, I just want to have conversations about rugby without being told constantly that the Boks are the best team in the world and all coaches except Rassie are useless etc



...

205 Go to comments
Close
ADVERTISEMENT