How England Got So Unnervingly Competent Under Eddie Jones
Eddie Jones oversaw his eleventh consecutive test victory as England coach at the weekend, despite his side being reduced to 14 men for 76 minutes. For Lee Calvert, long-suffering devotee of the red rose, this feels very weird.
The Autumn Internationals are a pertinent time to reflect on life as an England supporter. A year ago, we were the first host nation to be dumped out of their own Rugby World Cup at the group stage after a string of performances so uninspiring it was like listening to Coldplay at a church fete in the rain. Go back even further to 2009 and under Martin Johnson’s stewardship, England fans had to endure a national team that fielded a backline that contained Paul Hodgson, Dan Hipkiss, Ayoola Erinle and Matt Banahan. It was like Johnson had shopped in the broken produce section at a donkey market.
With these many disappointments seared into my memory, I watch the strangely competent Jones setup operate with the curiosity of a child poking roadkill with a stick; it’s fascinating but somehow looks and feels wrong.
This newfound competence was further tested against the Pumas on Saturday when Elliot Daly had himself sent off for the stupidesst attempt at a mid-air tackle since a small aeroplane took on King Kong. The team had to figure out how to win with one man down for virtually the entire match. It is testament to Jones’s new system that had a viewer tuned in after the red card, they would have struggled to realise England were at such a disadvantage.
Jones has created a gameplan and platform that is extremely malleable. It has already been proven able to respond to personnel changes early in games when players have been hoiked off early by the coach, it has shown it can accommodate all kinds of average in the seven shirt and still win. Now it has proven it can win convincingly with fourteen men. The most impressive thing is that whoever comes into the side, the performance level remains the same or even improves, even with the monumentally average Tom Wood as part of the setup.
[rugbypass-ad-banner id=”1475535264″]
Some will say that this victory was easy given that Argentina have spent November looking like a team more desperate to go home than a drunk at the back of the taxi queue in a blizzard. But this is unfair. Argentina are a quality outfit, and the likes of Isa, Cordero and Landajo to name three could’ve caused significant issues for any team with a gap in defence. Indeed for a period at the beginning of the second half it looked like that was exactly what was about to happen. Yet England regrouped, shut them out again and moreover scored points right to the end. But for a rare bad day from the tee by Owen Farrell, it could have seen a more convincing margin of victory.
Jones’ England will be tested further this weekend as an improved Wallabies side still smarting from the summer humiliation and fuming from the loss to Ireland roll into Twickenham with Michael Cheika’s face looking even more like a smacked arse than usual. The England pack will be without Billy Vunipola – the power carrying lynchpin of Eddie’s attack is reportedly out for four months – and the soon to be suspended Elliot Daly.
Once again we await what the Aussie at the helm of England can mold from the raw elements at his disposal, as England’s surreal victory train rolls on.
Comments on RugbyPass
An 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
1 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 Crusades , you can keep going.
1 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!😭😭😭 !!!
25 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
25 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.
25 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 commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
25 Go to commentsHaving overseas possessions in 2024 is absurd. These Frenchies should have to give the New Caledonians their freedom.
21 Go to commentsBell injured his foot didn’t he? Bring Tupou in he’ll deliver when it counts. Agree mostly but I would switch in the Reds number 8 Harry Wilson for Swinton and move Rob Valentini to 6 instead. Wilson is a clever player who reads the play, you can’t outmuscle the AB’s and Springboks, if you have any chance it’s by playing clever. Same goes for Paisami, he’s a little guy who doesn’t really trouble the likes of De Allende and Jordie Barrett. I’d rather play Carter Gordon at 12 and put Michael Lynagh’s boy at 10. That way you get a BMT type goalkicker at 10 and a playmaker at 12. Anyways, just my two cents as a Bok supporter.
14 Go to commentsThanks Brett, love your articles which are alway pertinent. It’s a difficult topic trying to have a panel adjudicating consistently penalties for red card issues. Many of the mitigating reasons raised are judged subjectively, hence the different outcomes. How to take away subjective opinions?
11 Go to commentsYes Sir! Surprising, just like Fraser would also have escaped sanction if he was a few inches lower, even if it was by accident that he missed! Has there really been talk about those sanctions or is this just sensational journalism? I stopped reading, so might have missed any notations.
11 Go to commentsAI is only as good as the information put in, the nuances of the sport, what you see out the corner of the eye, how you sum up in a split second the situation, yes the AI is a tool but will not help win games, more likely contribute to a loss, Rugby Players are not robots, all AI can do if offer a solution not the solution. AI will effect many sports, help train better golfers etc.
45 Go to comments