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The Eddie Jones reply to England criticism from Steve Borthwick
By PA
Eddie Jones has admitted that Steve Borthwick was probably right when stating he had inherited an England team that weren’t good at anything. Borthwick, who took over from Jones as head coach in December, offered the damning assessment following last Saturday’s 29-23 Guinness Six Nations defeat by Scotland at Twickenham.
Jones was sacked after presiding over a dire 2022 and, having now taken charge of Australia, he has accepted that his attempts to enhance England’s attack created problems. “Well, he is probably right and that is part of the problem,” Jones told the podcast EDDIE.
“We were trying to morph a team that had had a very good set-piece and very good kicking game. The way that the game is played at the moment, that will win you games but it is probably not good enough to be World Cup champions.
“And so expanding the attack sometimes takes away from your strengths and they are going through that difficult period now where they are trying to get that balance right in their game. But Steve will fix it. There is no doubt he will fix it - and keep blaming me. That is all right. I have got a pretty strong back and pretty strong shoulders to absorb that.”
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Latest Comments
How about a SH type of Champions Cup? I'm not going to repeat the whole response here, but did write what I think would be good. Not only for NZ, but all of the SH. I would however love to hear your thoughts on such a competition
Go to commentsCan’t really complain about those scores. Individually, too many were off their best and went missing in big, match defining moments. Collectively, the team often looked muddled and lacked cool-headed, leadership especially in the final quarter of games. This was further compounded by a quality drop-off from the bench.
Calls for Borthwick’s dismissal have grown increasingly louder with each passing game as he has been shown to be tactically and selectively subpar. His position is now in the balance and I don’t believe he’ll be kept on unless England fix their defensive issues and beat at least one of Ireland, France or Scotland in the 6Ns, which on the latest showing looks increasingly unlikely.
Couple of returning players in Chessum and Mitchell coupled with a stronger bench, might give England fans a few reasons to remain optimistic.
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