'Not fit for purpose': Eddie Jones accused of gaslighting as England's loss leaves fans furious

England's catastrophic start to the Autumn Nations Series has been ridiculed online after falling to Argentina 30-29 at Twickenham.

Owen Farrell led Eddie Jones’ side out for the Autumn Nations Series opener in a much vaunted midfield trio alongside fly-half Marcus Smith and Manu Tuilagi at 13.

Despite the pre-game hype, England looked abject in attack, with little more than route one carrying from the Tuilagi and Bath wing Joe Cokanasiga to rely on for any momentum, while relying on 33-year-old scrum-half Ben Youngs appears to be misguided.

The lack of line-breaking ability has afflicted this England side for much of 2022, with multiple midfield combinations failing to click.

Former England flyhalf and RugbyPass columnist Andy Goode blasted England's misfiring attack, posting: "England looked lethargic and lost at times in attack, fair play to Argentina they took their chances well and scored a try worthy of victory in any game. Cheika gets his first win over Eddie Jones too."

English journalist and RugbyPass contributor Chris Jones wrote: "So England Rugby lose 30-29 to UAR at home and Eddie Jones says there are too many penalties in the game. He’s right and many given away by dumb play from his players."

Rugby Paper journalist Neil Fisler questioned the wisdom of keeping Jones on, suggested he should have been binned off long ago. "Eddie Jones should have been removed as England coach a long time ago. Surely we aren’t going to let him stay until after the World Cup."

England fans were less reserved with their assessments labelling it 'atrocious', 'appalling display' and a 'snooze fest'.

Eddie Jones was called out for 'gas lighting' over misleading England fans as the standard of play has dropped over his tenure despite his insistance that progress is being made.

Another angry punter wrote: "That was a pathetic performance from England. Atrocious handling, no conviction around the ruck, inaccurate in the set piece, and the same idiotic tendency to haemorrhage penalties. Youngs really needs to be forcibly retired. Smith needs rapid service."

In his post-match comments on Amazon Prime, head coach Eddie Jones said he couldn't pinpoint what went wrong and lamented the lack of cohesion in his side.

"Losing always hurts. It was one of those games, the lead changed a lot," he said.

"You can't put your finger on what went wrong. Structurally we had control of the game but we kept making fundamental mistakes and easy errors.

"We have no excuses, the referee, the pitch was the same for both teams. They got the points at the right time. We lacked cohesion."