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The Eddie Jones substitution decision that left many England fans scratching their heads
By Josh Raisey
It was a very impressive win for England against France on Sunday at Twickenham, a game that was over before half time in truth.
At 30-8 at the break, and with two quick tries shortly after, England had an unassailable 44-8 lead going into the final quarter of the match. Of course, it was a performance that would have pleased Eddie Jones, the players and the fans alike. However, there was something that the fans questioned on Twitter, and that was Jones’ reluctance to bring Dan Robson on for his debut.
The Wasps scrum-half has been knocking on the door of the England squad for a number of years now and has been consistently overlooked. However, he made it onto the bench against Ireland last week, but did not get on. With Ireland being such a formidable opponent and Ben Youngs playing so well, it is understandable that the Australian would not want to throw a debutante on at the Aviva Stadium.
However, with the game effectively done and dusted against a forlorn French team, Jones waited until the 70th minute before he introduced Robson to the game, almost 10 minutes after his penultimate substitution.
This confused many fans, as this would have been the perfect game to introduce Robson earlier on. Furthermore, the match ended on a bit of a whimper, as there was not a score in the final 20 minutes. Jones was never averse to introducing one of his arch ‘finishers’ in the past in Danny Care, but bizarrely seemed reluctant to bring Robson on, who could have injected some energy back into the game.
It’s understandable if Jones wanted to try out a new half-back combination when George Ford came on at the hour mark, but the Youngs-Ford combination does need to prove anything. That is a tried and tested partnership for both club and country, and it would have made much more sense to give Robson a chance to line up alongside Farrell or Ford.
In a World Cup year, the 26-year-old Robson looks to be moving ahead of competitors Care and Richard Wigglesworth, but Jones would surely want to give him as much exposure to international rugby as possible before the showcase in Japan in September. France was the perfect platform to do so, and that is why the fans are slightly confused.
This is what the fans had to say:
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Latest Comments
It is if he thinks he’s got hold of the ball and there is at least one other player between him and the ball carrier, which is why he has to reach around and over their heads. Not a deliberate action for me.
Go to commentsI understand, but England 30 years ago were a set piece focused kick heavy team not big on using backs.
Same as now.
South African sides from any period will have a big bunch of forwards smashing it up and a first five booting everything in their own half.
NZ until recently rarely if ever scrummed for penalties; the scrum is to attack from, broken play, not structured is what we’re after.
Same as now.
These are ways of playing very ingrained into the culture.
If you were in an English club team and were off to Fiji for a game against a club team you’d never heard of and had no footage of, how would you prepare?
For a forward dominated grind or would you assume they will throw the ball about because they are Fijian?
A Fiji way. An English way.
An Australian way depends on who you’ve scraped together that hasn’t been picked off by AFL or NRL, and that changes from generation to generation a lot of the time.
Actually, maybe that is their style. In fact, yes they have a style.
Nevermind. Fuggit I’ve typed it all out now.
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