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Eddie Jones admits Jamie George mistake but stands by George Ford call
By PA
Eddie Jones admits the role his mismanagement of replacing Luke Cowan-Dickie played in England’s dramatic 20-17 defeat by Scotland.
Cowan-Dickie was sent to the sin-bin for a deliberate knock-on that prevented Darcy Graham from scoring a probable try in a tense final quarter of the Guinness Six Nations opener at Murrayfield.
Instead of bringing on Jamie George as specialist hooker cover, Jones kept his back row intact only for the decision to backfire when it meant prop Joe Marler had to throw in at the line-out.
Marler’s throw failed to travel five metres and from the resulting scrum England conceded a penalty which Finn Russell used to land the match-winning kick.
“We thought we could wait for a scrum because we wanted to keep the back rowers on at that stage,” Jones said.
“Scotland were moving the ball around well. We thought we needed that third back rower on. Certainly I take the blame for that.”
Jones is satisfied with his contentious decision to take off the outstanding Marcus Smith, however, amid criticism of his withdrawal of the 22-year-old playmaker.
Smith scored all 17 of England’s points and had just finished a dynamic try and landed a penalty when he was substituted for George Ford.
It was a risky call to take off his increasingly-influential fly-half and England duly unravelled as a 17-10 lead was overturned first by Cowan-Dickie’s penalty try and then Russell’s penalty.
“It’s a 23-man squad. We felt George could come on and do a job for us in the last 20 minutes,” said Jones when asked to explain the substitution.
For the third consecutive year England have opened the Six Nations with a defeat in a major setback following a successful autumn that ended with victory over world champions South Africa.
The next assignment is Sunday’s trip Italy and Jones insists the plan remains the same despite the inability to turn their dominance at Murrayfield into a win.
“This doesn’t change anything. In the next game we’ll get as many points as we can,” he said.
“And then the next game we’ll get as many points as we can, the next game we’ll get as many points as we can and then we’re in the last game and if we’re in the hunt for the trophy, all well and good.
“If we’re not then we’ll have played some good rugby. Obviously we want to win the competition but this doesn’t change our approach to the competition.”
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Latest Comments
The boy needs to bulk up if wants to play 10 or 11 to handle those hits, otherwise he could always make a brilliant reserve for the wings if he stays away from the stretcher.
Go to commentsIn another recent article I tried to argue for a few key concept changes for EPCR which I think could light the game up in the North.
First, I can't remember who pointed out the obvious elephant in the room (a SA'n poster?), it's a terrible time to play rugby in the NH, and especially your pinnacle tournament. It's been terrible watching with seemingly all the games I wanted to watch being in the dark, hardly able to see what was going on. The Aviva was the only stadium I saw that had lights that could handle the miserable rain. If the global appeal is there, they could do a lot better having day games.
They other primary idea I thuoght would benefit EPCR most, was more content. The Prem could do with it and the Top14 could do with something more important than their own league, so they aren't under so much pressure to sell games. The quality over quantity approach.
Trim it down to two 16 team EPCR competitions, and introduce a third for playing amongst the T2 sides, or the bottom clubs in each league should simply be working on being better during the EPCR.
Champions Cup is made up of league best 15 teams, + 1, the Challenge Cup winner. Without a reason not to, I'd distribute it evenly based on each leauge, dividing into thirds and rounded up, 6 URC 5 Top14 4 English. Each winner (all four) is #1 rank and I'd have a seeding round or two for the other 12 to determine their own brackets for 2nd, 3rd, and 4th. I'd then hold a 6 game pool, home and away, with consecutive of each for those games that involve SA'n teams. Preferrably I'd have a regional thing were all SA'n teams were in the same pool but that's a bit complex for this simple idea.
That pool round further finalises the seeding for knockout round of 16. So #1 pool has essentially duked it out for finals seeding already (better venue planning), and to see who they go up against 16, 15,etc etc. Actually I think I might prefer a single pool round for seeding, and introduce the home and away for Ro16, quarters, and semis (stuffs up venue hire). General idea to produce the most competitive matches possible until the random knockout phase, and fix the random lottery of which two teams get ranked higher after pool play, and also keep the system identical for the Challenge Cup so everthing is succinct. Top T2 side promoted from last year to make 16 in Challenge Cup
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