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Whoops, Eddie Jones, it's happened again as England implode

By Liam Heagney
(Photo by Stu Forster/Getty Images)

Whoops, Eddie Jones, it happened again. Whereas the Australian’s reign as England coach started out with some extravagance when it came to keeping the Scots under his thumb, the 2017 61-21 bonanza being the type of pummelling that would have had Wiliam Wallace spinning in his grave, recent years have not been as kind. 

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Swagger-sapping defeats in 2018 and 2021 and a brutally damaging draw in 2019 were the type of mishaps that no England coach can excuse and his labelling of the Scots as favourites coming into Saturday’s renewal of Test rugby’s oldest fixture was no mind game, more a recognition of how the tables really have viciously turned results-wise in this Calcutta Cup joust. So it proved.  

England were coasting, 17-10 clear with a dominant second half period that had overturned a 6-10 interval deficit. And then they inexplicably imploded, an absence of leadership from on high in the stands and out on the pitch seeing them crash and burn in the most devastating fashion to lose 17-20.

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There were just over 16 minutes left when Jones hooked four players in one substitution, that extraction including Smith who had led the fightback and was the scorer of his team’s entire 17-point haul. He was gone just two minutes when the lead evaporated, Luke Cowan-Dickie adjudged to have illegally batted the ball into touch with Darcy Graham looking to collect the crosskick and score. 

Penalty try and yellow card was the double-whammy decision of referee Ben O’Keeffe, a wound made all the more painful by how sub Jamie George had been pointed at by team boss Richard Hill to get ready when England were still in control but the call to substitute Cowan-Dickie at that juncture didn’t happen. 

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Even when they then had a defensive lineout in their 22 minutes later with the scores level at 17-all, they elected to have prop Joe Marler throw the ball in rather than sub someone and get George on. The result? The ensuing free from the botched throw led to a scrum and then a penalty to shoot the Scots ahead on 72 minutes. It was calamitous and it still got worse. England snubbed a game-levelling shot at posts from the ten-metre line for a kick into touch where they terribly lost the ensuing lineout.   

And then following a series of reset scrums with the clock in the red where they were refused a penalty by the referee, their backline attack was lame, the ball ultimately getting lost and it was left for home skipper Stuart Hogg to get passed the ball and boot it high into the stand behind the goal at 6:39pm to leave Scotland fans in the capacity 67,144 attendance deliriously cheering to the rafters.

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Jones had been booed into the ground by the home fans when England were bussed into Murrayfield some three hours earlier and he would have been booed out by the away fans if they had hung around long enough to see him off the premises. The heel of the hunt was he had ultimately got it badly wrong with his strategy and he must now shoulder the blame.  

The XV he had chosen was a case of something old (the presence of forwards Nick Isiekwe and Sam Simmonds, whom Jones had lasted started in a Test match four years ago), something new (the inclusion of Smith as a playmaker with Freddie Steward as the gatekeeper), something borrowed (novice leader Tom Curry getting the captaincy with Owen Farrell and Courtney Lawes laid up) and something blue (the coach insisting that his team was “very equipped, a young but good side”.

They weren’t as good as he had anticipated on a wet, windy and bitterly cold day where no sooner had the Murrayfield gates opened for business at 1:45pm did an already drenched army of people clad in winter woollies teem in for an afternoon of rich winter pageantry, the bagpipes, the beers, the Irn-Bru and all the rest that goes hand in hand with creating an intimidating atmosphere for the auld enemy. 

England were collectively booed off their bus, Scotland acclaimed like champions when they arrived and that rumbustious cheering was still going strong many hours later when the Calcutta Cup was handed over to them yet again, igniting giddy aspirations that their mid-March trip to Ireland in round five will be this year’s title decider rather than the clash of France and England in Paris on the same day.  

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Martin Gleeson’s appointment was meant to continue to shake up the England attack in his campaign involved but there was largely no spark here as the dominant emphasis was instead on an overly structured play that could only take them so far. For instance, they made the more convincing start to the match despite the concession of the contest’s first penalty when Kyle Sinckler was bottled up on the deck, but the rewards were miserly and not enough to steer them clear from the damagingly decisive second-half ambush. 

Jones had chirped that the set-piece and the aerial game were the two advantages that England could definitely bank on and there was early evidence. Having stopped the Scots dead at a maul, England won two frees and then a penalty at the three opening scrums held in quick succession on the same spot of turf. Maro Itoje led the boisterous cheers, followed quickly by a few bars of Swing Low from the visiting fans. 

Some angled kicks in behind the cover from Elliot Daly also caught the eye and all this pressure eventually gave Max Malins an unrewarded sniff at the corner. This dominance boded well but worryingly England’s only early show on the board was a 17th-minute penalty kick from Smith after the Scots had illegally played Ben Youngs.

Soon, this meagre lead vanished. Scotland are always at their most dangerous when conjuring unstructured play and having huffed and puffed with structure, they exploded to life with a George Turner quick throw that snapped England’s concentration.

The ball found its way to Graham and Ben White, the debut-making ex-England U20s who was temporarily on while Ali Price was having an HIA. What ensued was glorious Six Nations pandemonium, the pair skittling the defence with dancing feet, the sweeping combination jinking and weaving to the line for White to score the try added to by Russell for a 7-3 lead against the run of play. 

If that was unfair on England, when Scotland trooped off 22 minutes later for the break, they had become good value for the 10-6 score they held. England persisted with too much structure – a grubber from hooker Cowan-Dickie was one rare untoward thing they attempted, a twelve-man maul held up over the line another. 

As before, they were left settling for three penalty points from Smith, Jamie Ritchie done for hands in the ruck, but Scotland had the last say, Russell punishing Sinckler for over-indulgence at a breakdown. Still, it set the scene beautifully for the second period and it was England who initially rose to the occasion. 

Smith kicked a penalty and then darted over for an unconverted try on 53 minutes after the England maul had sucked in cover. Now behind after leading for 35 minutes, it was time for Scotland to jazz things up. They ratcheted up the passes, shifting the ball more quickly, but sealing off and an offside had Smith back on the tee and stretching the margin out to seven with just over 16 minutes remaining. 

That should have been that the result done and dusted in favour of the visitors. Instead, England disbelievingly imploded and a damned Jones was sent homeward to think again. Whoops!

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Jon 15 minutes ago
Jake White: Are modern rugby players actually better?

This is the problem with conservative mindsets and phycology, and homogenous sports, everybody wants to be the same, use the i-win template. Athlete wise everyone has to have muscles and work at the gym to make themselves more likely to hold on that one tackle. Do those players even wonder if they are now more likely to be tackled by that player as a result of there “work”? Really though, too many questions, Jake. Is it better Jake? Yes, because you still have that rugby of ole that you talk about. Is it at the highest International level anymore? No, but you go to your club or checkout your representative side and still engage with that ‘beautiful game’. Could you also have a bit of that at the top if coaches encouraged there team to play and incentivized players like Damian McKenzie and Ange Capuozzo? Of course we could. Sadly Rugby doesn’t, or didn’t, really know what direction to go when professionalism came. Things like the state of northern pitches didn’t help. Over the last two or three decades I feel like I’ve been fortunate to have all that Jake wants. There was International quality Super Rugby to adore, then the next level below I could watch club mates, pulling 9 to 5s, take on the countries best in representative rugby. Rugby played with flair and not too much riding on the consequences. It was beautiful. That largely still exists today, but with the world of rugby not quite getting things right, the picture is now being painted in NZ that that level of rugby is not required in the “pathway” to Super Rugby or All Black rugby. You might wonder if NZR is right and the pathway shouldn’t include the ‘amateur’, but let me tell you, even though the NPC might be made up of people still having to pull 9-5s, we know these people still have dreams to get out of that, and aren’t likely to give them. They will be lost. That will put a real strain on the concept of whether “visceral thrill, derring-do and joyful abandon” type rugby will remain under the professional level here in NZ. I think at some point that can be eroded as well. If only wanting the best athlete’s at the top level wasn’t enough to lose that, shutting off the next group, or level, or rugby players from easy access to express and showcase themselves certainly will. That all comes back around to the same question of professionalism in rugby and whether it got things right, and rugby is better now. Maybe the answer is turning into a “no”?

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j
john 2 hours ago
Will the Crusaders' decline spark a slow death for New Zealand rugby?

But here in Australia we were told Penney was another gun kiwi coach, for the Tahs…….and yet again it turned out the kiwi coach was completely useless. Another con job on Australian rugby. As was Robbie Deans, as was Dave Rennie. Both coaches dumped from NZ and promoted to Australia as our saviour. And the Tahs lap them up knowing they are second rate and knowing that under pressure when their short comings are exposed in Australia as well, that they will fall in below the largest most powerful province and choose second rate Tah players to save their jobs. As they do and exactly as Joe Schmidt will do. Gauranteed. Schmidt was dumped by NZ too. That’s why he went overseas. That why kiwi coaches take jobs in Australia, to try and prove they are not as bad as NZ thought they were. Then when they get found out they try and ingratiate themselves to NZ again by dragging Australian teams down with ridiculous selections and game plans. NZ rugby’s biggest problem is that it can’t yet transition from MCaw Cheatism. They just don’t know how to try and win on your merits. It is still always a contest to see how much cheating you can get away with. Without a cheating genius like McCaw, they are struggling. This I think is why my wise old mate in NZ thinks Robertson will struggle. The Crusaders are the nursery of McCaw Cheatism. Sean Fitzpatrick was probably the father of it. Robertson doesn’t know anything else but other countries have worked it out.

15 Go to comments
A
Adrian 4 hours ago
Will the Crusaders' decline spark a slow death for New Zealand rugby?

Thanks Nick The loss of players to OS, injury and retirement is certainly not helping the Crusaders. Ditto the coach. IMO Penny is there to hold the fort and cop the flak until new players and a new coach come through,…and that's understood and accepted by Penny and the Crusaders hierarchy. I think though that what is happening with the Crusaders is an indicator of what is happening with the other NZ SRP teams…..and the other SRP teams for that matter. Not enough money. The money has come via the SR competition and it’s not there anymore. It's in France, Japan and England. Unless or until something is done to make SR more SELLABLE to the NZ/Australia Rugby market AND the world rugby market the $s to keep both the very best players and the next rung down won't be there. They will play away from NZ more and more. I think though that NZ will continue to produce the players and the coaches of sufficient strength for NZ to have the capacity to stay at the top. Whether they do stay at the top as an international team will depend upon whether the money flowing to SRP is somehow restored, or NZ teams play in the Japan comp, or NZ opts to pick from anywhere. As a follower of many sports I’d have to say that the organisation and promotion of Super Rugby has been for the last 20 years closest to the worst I’ve ever seen. This hasn't necessarily been caused by NZ, but it’s happened. Perhaps it can be fixed, perhaps not. The Crusaders are I think a symptom of this, not the cause

15 Go to comments
T
Trevor 7 hours ago
Will forgotten Wallabies fit the Joe Schmidt model?

Thanks Brett.. At last a positive article on the potential of Wallaby candidates, great to read. Schmidt’s record as an international rugby coach speaks for itself, I’m somewhat confident he will turn the Wallaby’s fortunes around …. on the field. It will be up to others to steady the ship off the paddock. But is there a flaw in my optimism? We have known all along that Australia has the players to be very competitive with their international rivals. We know that because everyone keeps telling us. So why the poor results? A question that requires a definitive answer before the turn around can occur. Joe Schmidt signed on for 2 years, time to encompass the Lions tour of 2025. By all accounts he puts family first and that’s fair enough, but I would wager that his 2 year contract will be extended if the next 18 months or so shows the statement “Australia has the players” proves to be correct. The new coach does not have a lot of time to meld together an outfit that will be competitive in the Rugby Championship - it will be interesting to see what happens. It will be interesting to see what happens with Giteau law, the new Wallaby coach has already verbalised that he would to prefer to select from those who play their rugby in Australia. His first test in charge is in July just over 3 months away .. not a long time. I for one wish him well .. heaven knows Australia needs some positive vibes.

21 Go to comments
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