England undone by Irish

By Mark Stevens
18/3/18

Eddie Jones was left to survey the damage after his England side slipped to a third successive NatWest Six Nations defeat at the hands of Ireland, whose 24-15 victory at Twickenham ensured them of the Grand Slam.

Having entered into the tournament as defending champions and many people’s favourites to pick up the prize for a third successive season, England failed to deliver the goods during a hugely disappointing campaign.

Defeats to Scotland and France previously were rounded off as the Irish dominated for long periods in this final outing on St Patrick’s Day. First half tries from Garry Ringrose, CJ Stander and Jacob Stockdale lit up a snowy Twickenham as Joe Schmidt’s men opened up a 21-5 lead despite having Peter O’Mahon in the sin bin.

A double from Elliot Daly and Jonny May’s try with the clock in the red at the end of the game brought only faint consolation of the home side, who included Exeter Chiefs duo Sam Simmonds and Don Armand in their match-day squad.

Not since the dark days of 2006 have they lost three matches in a single Six Nations campaign, and with Scotland beating Italy and Wales beating France in the late kick-off, they eventually finished fifth in the table for the first time.

Post-match, Jones said: “We have these runs and I have coached long enough and sometimes you get out of it quick and other times longer.

“At the moment [the losing streak] is at three games; it's not nice but it is part of the process of being a better team and we learnt a lot about the team in this championship and how we need to develop our game which is important. So as disappointing as it is, it is part of being a better team.

Jones will pick apart the bones of this championship between now and their three-Test tour of South Africa in June but says they have grown away from the field.

“We had to develop the internal part and how our team must take more responsibility and that is all part of the process and we have made some good development in those areas. Sometimes it doesn't look like that and I understand that because when you add something to a team that can be a wait for a while and at the moment it is a bit of a wait but it is an important wait and you need that going forward to be a better team.

"We knew that even though we had won 23 out of 25 we weren't good enough to get where we want to get and we knew we had to change the team and sometimes that hurts."