(Picture: PA)
Eddie Jones hailed 14-man England’s performance against Ireland as their foundation game for next year’s World Cup.
The hosts came close to an unlikely Six Nations win despite Charlie Ewels’ 82-second red card, level at Twickenham with just 15 minutes left on the clock.
But despite Ireland running away 32-15 winners with two late tries, Jones said it was a coming-of-age display from his new-look side.
“I see that as a foundation game for us where we set out our campaign for the World Cup in 2023,” he said. “The spirit, the determination, the ability to work through problems, absolutely outstanding.
“When you consider we lost [Kyle] Sinckler, [Tom] Curry, [Jonny] Hill’s on the sideline, [Sam] Underhill’s on the sideline, there’s a lot of blokes to come back and compete.
“The pack is only going to get better and better. We want an old-fashioned pack and be new fashioned in the way we attack. We’re moving towards that and you see how much the players are enjoying that.”
Despite the player disadvantage, England were the better side for much of the second half, as their scrum dominated and Marcus Smith put the Irish defence under pressure with the high ball.
But a couple of late errors as England ran out of steam proved costly. And Jones said: “We got to 15-all with 15 to go, we’re controlling the game. We just made a couple of mistakes that allowed them into the game. It’s a learning experience for this team. I couldn’t be prouder of them. The young guys will learn a lot from that.”
England captain Courtney Lawes described it as a “benchmark game” with “that kind of physicality and dominance up front”. Lawes added: “We want to make it part of our DNA. We can take loads out of that game. We never gave up. We put absolutely everything into that game. Unfortunately, we came up short.”
The match was Johnny Sexton’s last at Twickenham having announced plans to retire after next year’s World Cup.
The Ireland fly-half insisted his last outing was immaterial and praised his players for holding on for the win. He said: “Two years ago, we would have lost that game. At 15-all, we wouldn’t have had the composure to regroup.”
