Eddie Jones has questioned why Ireland were not shown a yellow card as a result of England’s scrum dominance in his side’s 32-15 loss but believes the gallant defeat – in which they played 78 minutes with 14 men – could be the making of their 2023 World Cup campaign.
Jones had no complaints over Charlie Ewels’ second-minute red card and was full of pride for his side’s effort but believes Mathieu Raynal, the French referee, should have meted out stricter punishment to Ireland’s serial offenders at the scrum.
Despite losing Ewels, England were level at 15-15 with 15 minutes to go before a Johnny Sexton penalty and late tries from Jack Conan and Finlay Bealham finally broke their resistance. In Ewels’ absence, Courtney Lawes shifted to second row at the scrum with Jack Nowell packing down at flanker but England comprehensively overpowered Ireland, earning six penalties.
“I’m a bit disappointed the referee didn’t allow us to scrum fully,” said Jones. “That would be my only complaint, that we weren’t allowed to play advantage away from the scrum – and there was no sign of a yellow card. If World Rugby want to have a scrum in the game they’ve got to allow strong scrums to allow themselves to dominate so we’re disappointed we didn’t get more out of it.”
On Ewels’ second-minute dangerous tackle on James Ryan, who took no further part in the match, Jones added: “He’s disappointed but no one apportions blame on him. It’s a genuine attempt to make a good tackle, he just got his head in the wrong spot. We’ve got no questions about the red card.”
Defeat means England are out of contention for the title and with a trip to grand slam-chasing France next week, Jones’s side could finish fifth in the table for the second year in a row. They are set to be without Tom Curry, who limped off with a hamstring injury, as well as Ewels who is facing a ban and potentially Kyle Sinckler, who went off with concussion. The brave manner of their defeat, however, means the inquest is on hold for now with Maro Itoje, Ellis Genge and Nowell all standout performers despite Ireland eventually claiming their biggest ever win at Twickenham.
“I see that as a foundation game for us where we set our campaign for the World Cup in 2023,” added Jones. “The spirit, the determination, the ability to work through problems were all absolutely outstanding. This pack is only going to get better and better. We want to be an old-fashioned England pack and a new-fashioned England attack. We’re moving in a really solid progression towards that. There were 82,000 people there tonight that loved seeing the spirit of this team. It’s a great learning experience for this team, I couldn’t be prouder of them. We’ll be right. We don’t have a shortage of spirit. We’ll get ourselves right and rip into France.”
Ireland, meanwhile, will be crowned champions if they overcome Scotland and England do them a favour in Paris. Andy Farrell’s side laboured at times with England, roared on by a raucous Twickenham crowd, threatening the most unlikely of victories but they wrapped up what could prove a key bonus point, which leaves them two points behind France in the table. “[I’m] over the moon,” said Farrell. “If you’d said that to us before the start we’d have snatched your hand off. I’m sure that England will recover well and take good heart from the great performance with 14 men and they’ll look to finish the tournament very well themselves.”
