This board is becoming hard to please. I’m not sure if it’s the impact of lockdown, or something else but the constant sniping at Saracens players and about England is getting pretty dull.
The former has been largely done to death. Personally, I’ll be incredibly disappointed if they’re allowed straight back up without playing a game in the Championship but find a lot of the comments on here unnecessary and unsavoury.
I’m happy to ignore them in general, but in case anyone else feels the same but was worried about being drowned about by others thought I’d say something.
Back to the topic in hand. When you ignore the crap that he spouts in some of his press interviews (and often I think they’re provoked by crap questions) most of his assertions about the game are fundamentally true and often his underlying reasons for a particular selection, or tactic ring true.
Yes, there’s a couple of examples where England have struggled to work things out on the pitch (Italy), have choked (Wales away a few years ago) or have been out-muscled (South Africa in the Final) but by and large the Jones era has been successful. Ultimately, when it came to the final I think South Africa found that extra edge through the emotional energy they brought whereas it seemed the pressure seemed to catch-up with England.
Agree with mike909 about an inability at times to change the way they’re playing although not sure I agree that Saturday was necessary - even if we’d like to of seen some running rugby. Rob Baxter is seemingly on the same page as Eddie in that he believes the importance of the maul is in how it saps the energy of the opposition (important with a big, physical, Georgian pack with a point to prove) as well as maximises reward in terms of points. With crappy weather, spinning it wide probably wasn’t the right thing to do.
Eddie has been very complimentary about Jack, no reason why he’d be discarded or that only playing a just over a half is to be seen as a negative. Perhaps he’d seen all he needed to see and his impression from training matched what he saw on the pitch. So wanted to see how Earl did.
We’ll see where we’re at somewhat vs Ireland this weekend. On the back off of a decent win, admittedly against a pretty lacklustre Wales and a with a point to prove after we had a decent at Twickenham in the 6N.