Eddie’s back on top after his best win with England
Coach makes all the right moves on selection and his players deliver
MAKE no mistake this was the biggest win for England under Eddie Jones and a real boost in what will be a massive year. What a fantastic performance against the form side in the world and what a fantastic way to kick off 2019.
The Grand Slam in 2016, the 3-0 series win away in Australia, the Six Nations title in 2017 — this trumps the lot and Eddie will be feeling a lot happier today.
I can’t remember England playing better in his tenure. From one to 15, they were huge and Owen Farrell led the team brilliantly. Flanker Tom Curry had a blinder, despite his first-half yellow card and Jonny May proved he is one of the best wingers rs in the world.
In a World Cup year r this was a real line in the sand. All the rubbish from last year has been consigned to the dustbin, England are on track and Eddie has his mojo back after the distrac- tions of 2018.
Eddie can park all the arguments with club owners, wners, they are producing a roll call of excellent players, and all that peripheral nonsense. Now is not the time to be some sort of pantomime villain in press conferences, now is the time to get busy. And England got busy in Dublin. Ireland had no answer and it has been a while since we have said that. So hats off to Eddie, after a poor 2018, and his defensive coach John Mitchell, to go and win in in a pp lace where the All B Blacks got seen off in the autumn series. There were heroes a all over the pitch but some of them were in the coaching box. From the s start, England e exposed Ireland pl playing Robbie Hensha shaw who was at full back with their kicking game an and that would have come from the brains’ trust. They also got Manu Tuilagi into the match as soon as they could after his prolonged absences from the Test arena and they took the correct decisions to take the points when they were on offer.
Tuilagi’s pass that helped set up England’s second try for Elliot Daly was out of the top draw.
Henry Slade was top class and Daly had a great game at full back after people doubted him being able to cope in the Dublin cauldron.
So I hope the England fans really celebrated a victory over an excellent side but now the players need to go again.
I was confident England would win and tipped them all week but I seemed to be in a minority of one — there was a real buzz coming out of the camp and it they nailed it.
The stats were against them. England have won once in Dublin in the Six Nations since 2003 and had not scored a single try in the tournament there since Steve Thompson’s consolation effort in 2011. Joe Schmidt, the Irish head coach, had never a lost a Six Nations game at the Aviva Stadium. They are ranked second in the world to England’s fourth.
This is a top Irish team but they were undone by smart coaching and smart players.
This was the strongest England team I have seen for a long time.
You couldn’t really argue with the selections, maybe Anthony Watson and Sam Underhill would be in if they were fit and possibly Courtney Lawes could have started, but it is basically as good as Eddie has got. So there would have been no excuses for England. And they didn’t need any, so let’s see if they can back it up.
Friday’s madcap game in Paris has huge relevance to England because France come to Twickenham next Sunday and, for 40 minutes, they played like a team of
world beaters. When you see monsters like Uini Atonio, Sebastien Vahaamahina and Louis Picamoles in a pack, you would assume they would play ponderously but they were anything but in the first half and led 16-0 at half-time.
They played at pace but then they looked like they had forgotten how to win a game of rugby.
The key in situations like that is go out treating the game as if the score is 0-0 and just win the second half. Win the second half against Wales, even if it was only 3-0 with a drop goal, you win the game.
But Wales’ 24-19 win has teed up the tournament brilliantly for the neutral.
France might have forgotten how to win a game of rugby but, as Warren Gatland, the Wales head coach, said, his team have forgotten how to lose matches. They host England and Ireland in Cardiff further down the track and Gatland, who has played this superbly, has already stated that if Wales won at Stade de France they would win the Six Nations title.
Bold stuff from a bold coach but, when the TV cameras panned to Gatland and his coaching team, there was absolutely no panic, even when they were 16-0 down.
Bring on the next round.