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'Worst since 2015': England compared to Lancaster era after 'being battered' by Boks
By Sam Smith
England limped to the end of their Autumn internationals with just one win from four tests as a 14-man South Africa coasted to a 27-13 win at Twickenham, heaping pressure on head coach Eddie Jones.
After a disastrous Six Nations in 2021 and a third-place finish in 2022, questions over Jones' rebuild of his 2019 World Cup final side persist.
After losing to Argentina to start the Autumn campaign, Jones' men rebounded to beat Japan, finished fast to draw with New Zealand before falling heavily to South Africa for a disappointing November.
A ten minute flurry against a 14-man All Blacks side last weekend saved what could have been a similar scoreline, coming back from 25-6 to tie the test. Outside of that, it has been a less than impressive showing from England.
The manner of the 27-13 defeat to the Springboks has English rugby fans concerned, with fans saying they are 'devoid of ideas' and will 'make up the numbers' at next year's World Cup.
They were outclassed in 'every area of the game' and struggled to put points together when the Springboks went down to 14 men for the final twenty minutes, repelled multiple times from the maul and turning the ball over on the goal line.
The loss was described as the 'worst since 2015' when Stuart Lancaster lead the side to a pool stage exit at their home World Cup, leading to a clean out and the initial beginning of Jones' era.
Despite morale falling to extremely low levels, head coach Eddie Jones is still optimistic improvements are being made by his side who are 'building a good base' for a World Cup run.
“On results, we are not happy but I feel like we are building a really good base to have a really good go at the World Cup, a really good base," he said.
"A number of young players got some great experience today. They will come back better players from that and we have got other players coming back to form, some of our more senior players and we are not far away."
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Latest Comments
No just because the personal is much better than last year. I've shown no antagonism of Crusader players, you must be confusing me with someone else.
I have critized Razor for picking players he knows occasionally?
I said I'm not surprised because of his style, he's more a grinder player like Cane, not going to show up on peoples radar until you see how bad the other choices are. This year players like Clarke have been on fire and just show a bit more.
Are you one of those posters continually taking it easy on Razor because he doesn't have his Crusaders stars available? Do you think the rugby world is going to up to him suddenly once Mo'unga returns? lol
Go to commentsJohn you have been beating this drum for a couple of years, if you get proven right get back to us.
The last recent and decent Aussie coach was Ewen McKenzie, he was undermined and forced out by a couple of slimy Aussie players who were given a free pass when they should have been disciplined.
So our history since McQueen is very checkered and it seems to make little difference whether we have an Aussie coach or a Kiwi coach. The players have been entitled for a long time and we had to hit bottom to get them back into reality and to stop thinking it is all about them.
Cheika was an OK coach but his 'go our and destroy the opposition' tactic worked for a while and then didn't.
Please give me a list of great Aussie coaches that I have missed.
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