'Can I just say I think you are being totally disrespectful' - Eddie Jones responds to criticism of England's style
Eddie Jones turned on critics of England’s style of play after they needed extra time to defeat a shadow France team 22-19 in the Autumn Nations Cup final at Twickenham.
A theme throughout a long campaign that began when the Six Nations title was claimed at the Stadio Olimpico in October has been a focus on defence, kicking and set-piece.
It is a trend evident across all countries and to underline the point it took a driving maul finished by Luke Cowan-Dickie 29 seconds from normal time to usher in extra time.
At one point the 2,000 crowd responded to a period of prolonged exchange of kicking by booing,
And responding to criticism, Jones responded with an angry rant.
“Can I just say I think you are being totally disrespectful to the players the way you criticise the rugby,” Jones said. “Rugby needs to be positive at the moment. It’s a tough time for the sport, it’s a tough time to play rugby and we are all trying to play as good a rugby as we can.
“Consider the players are coming off at least a 10-month season without having any pre-season to prepare for the international game.
“It has been tough for the players and you are being disrespectful to the players. You should be trying to paint a much more positive picture of the sport. It is a sport we love and it is a difficult game to play.”
When asked if rugby is about winning only or if providing entertainment was also important, Jones said: “That is not the point and I find the question a bit childish. Obviously you have to win. If we don’t win, we don’t coach.
“In terms of the rugby – do you think we go out there and don’t want to play good rugby? Are you seriously asking me that question? Sometimes you can’t play good rugby, so I apologise. I apologise.
“Had we run the ball from everywhere and got turned over 30 times and been beaten 30-15 you’d have said why didn’t we kick the ball more.
“These are the best players in the world and you’re telling me they’re playing that game because they don’t want to play good rugby? Be respectful to the players.
“We’re trying to win games of rugby and we’ve got to find a way to do that, to try to get the ball to the opposition goal line as we can. That’s the aim of the game. Always has been, always will be.
“The easiest way at times is to kick the ball, other times it is to run the ball. We’re always looking to get the right balance.
“Would we like to run the ball more? Possibly yes, but not if we’re not going to win games of rugby.”
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Skelton may be brought back for the Wallabies so that would be the only reason that may hinder Wilson. Easily the form, most skilful and game IQ of any Oz 8. Valentini’s best and favourite position is 6, but lineouts may be an issue with Skelton, Valentini and Wilson. Will be interesting what Schmidt goes for but for me Wilson should be picked on form. Schmidt rewards work rate, skill and consistency. All that glitters every so often won’t be in contention. Greely is one of those players that has a knack of making the right decision. A coach is going to love him because he knows week in week out he’s going to get the job done. The second try Greely wasn’t the guy who made the initial break it was Flook, Greely was at the bottom of the ruck when Flook was off along the sideline. Greely got up and made the effort to catch up with play but also read the play nicely and hit the pass from Campbell at pace and then held the pass beautifully to Ryan.
Go to commentsSharks deserved to be far further back by the last quarter. Their tackling was awful, their set pieces were disappointing, their defensive organization was poor (especially on the Kok side of the D line), they kept making unnecessary errors, and they never looked like cracking the Clermont defense during those first 60m. Masuku kept them in touch, with some help from the Clermont generosity on penalty opportunities. Agree with the writer of this article. It was belligerence, and ability to raise their pressure game just enough, that turned the last quarter into a Bok-style shutout. Clermont have a reputation of not playing the full 80m, and there was a bit of that for sure. But, quite often when the intensity of a team drops off in the last quarter credit is due to the opponent for tiring them out. At 60m, with the Kok try, you thought that just maybe the game was on. At 70m, with the Mapimpi contribution, one felt that Clermont were fading, while facing a team that would maintain the pressure game through the final whistle. Good win in the end, but the Sharks are still playing way below their potential. And with their resources, and a coach that has had enough time to figure things out, they are running out of excuses.
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