Jones' questionable 'finishers' policy draws fire from England fans on Twitter

As expected after England’s chastening loss to Wales on Saturday, fans were quite critical of the performance on Twitter.

After two bonus-point wins over Ireland and France in the opening two rounds, many fans would have expected the same in Cardiff, but it wasn’t to be as Wales completely nullified England’s kicking game and were able to dominate territory and possession.

England looked unable to break out of the game plan that has served them so well so far this Championship, and, in the end, they lost without troubling the Welsh at all in the closing stages.

What confused many fans was Eddie Jones’ reluctance to look to his bench to change things up in the latter stages of the match. In Jones’ entire tenure in England, he has never given his bench fewer minutes.

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Most notably was the fact that neither Dan Robson nor George Ford were used by Jones. This was a game where a new half backs seemed to be a necessity, as England’s incessant kicking game was not working. Ford offers a greater attacking threat and is a better creator than Farrell, while the same could equally be said about Robson and Youngs.

The fact that Jones did not turn to them when they were dearly needed shows how little trust the Australian has in them, and that is apparent to the fans.

https://twitter.com/thelongestone/status/1099350484190674946
https://twitter.com/Joatamos/status/1099602947435085824
https://twitter.com/powellsw/status/1099379135032500224
https://twitter.com/tevansJJ/status/1099373616901357570

Saturday’s match once again unearthed a perennial topic of debate which is the inclusion of Danny Cipriani. The game was crying out for someone to inject some attacking impetus into the England team and keep the ball in hand.

Farrell was not having the greatest day in an England shirt, and needed to come off or revert to inside centre, as players like Manu Tuilagi outside him were becoming nothing other than spectators in attack.

While Ford could be that man, the fact that Jones did not trust him opened up calls for the Gloucester fly-half to come back into the team. Cipriani has been on the periphery of the England squad for a long time, and while he has been given chances, he has not been able to curry favour with Jones.

However, some fans believe Cipriani had the credentials to change England’s non-existent attack on Saturday.

This is what they had to say:

https://twitter.com/taviraterry/status/1099603811059056642
https://twitter.com/RogerGadd/status/1099381301658963968
https://twitter.com/SmilerScottUK/status/1099415674345213952
https://twitter.com/ColemanG1992/status/1099383403697324032

Completely agree there. Biggar can come off the bench and change the game like that. Can’t say George Ford would do the same, yet Cipriani would.

— Dan Kentfield (@dank1989) February 23, 2019