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.

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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.