Eddie Jones: ‘Impressive’ England look like the Springboks with ‘monsters’ in the pack
Ellis Genge and Australia’s Allan Alaalatoa with an inset of Japan boss Eddie Jones.
Japan head coach Eddie Jones says that his former team, England, looked a lot like the Springboks in their victory over the Wallabies.
Steve Borthwick’s side convincingly defeated Australia 25-7 at the Allianz Stadium, with the replacements providing a real punch in the second half to inspire the victory.
England only led by three points at half-time as they struggled to get reward for their pressure and dominance, with Harry Potter’s interception near his own tryline and subsequent try effectively being a 14-point swing.
England beat Australia to the punch
Appearing on the Rugby Unity podcast, Jones spoke highly of his former team’s performance and likened it to the back-to-back World Cup winners, South Africa.
The Springboks dominated Japan at Wembley Stadium on Saturday, bossing the gain-line and aerial duel in a comprehensive 61-7 victory over the Brave Blossoms.
England’s dominance of the match meant that the Wallabies barely fired a shot at the Allianz Stadium in Twickenham.
“England, I thought again, looked a bit like South Africa,” Jones began.
“They beat Australia to the punch on nearly everything, breakdown, and tactically it was hard ever to see Australia getting any little advantage.
“There were two pieces of play where Allan Alaalatoa looked like he was going to throw the ball out of the back, took the ball to the line, the short ball to Valetini, who made a good line break and then went down the left-hand side. But apart from that, I can’t recall any time that Australia really looked like threatening England.
“England played their very contained, very structured, high-kicking game, and off the back of that attack, when they had the opportunity, and I thought England were very impressive. For Australia, it was a tough old afternoon.”
The monsters
Jones hailed the impact that England’s bench had in the match and said that fatigue could not be used as an excuse for Australia, who came off the back of a six-week break and refreshed their team after beating Japan a week prior.
Instead, he says that the Wallabies were simply beaten up by England and the ‘monsters’ that they have on their bench, singling out the likes of Ellis Genge, Will Stuart, Tom Curry and Luke Cowan-Dickie in particular.
“Australia were freshened up for this game, six weeks since [many of them] played. So I don’t think you can you can use fatigue as a reason,” he said.
“I think they just got physically beaten, and when you bring Curry, Genge – you see the size of him, he had to cut his shorts to fit into them – he looked like a monster, and he looked like he’s brooding, and he was ready for it.
“Luke Cowan-Dickie gets a turnover, who again at his best is an abrasive player, and Will Stuart weighs 125kgs and is a big monster of a man, and Pollock can do things that other players can’t. They came on and raised the intensity of the game, and Australia struggled to stay with them.”
Eddie Jones: ‘Two areas where I noticed the Springboks were significantly different’
Big wingers
Jones was also impressed by wingers Tom Roebuck and Immanuel Feyi-Waboso, who bring the size England lacked out wide while adding that Freddie Steward looks ‘sharper’ than he has been in recent times.
“They’ve got some big guys now on the wings, which they didn’t have before,” he added.
“Roebuck from Sale on the right wing, he won a couple of balls in the air, big aggressive guy, and the flyer on the other wing from Exeter, he’s got real footwork in big pace.
“So they seem to have added to the team. Freddie Steward looks sharp at the back and made a couple of good line breaks on the counterattack. He looks to have sharpened himself up, which was a criticism of him before, that he wasn’t quick enough, and he certainly ran a lot straighter.”
Finally, he weighed in on the addition of Lee Blackett as the England attack coach. Jones believes that he has straightened up the attack, which goes hand in hand with the kicking strategies that were already in place.
“The English attack was a lot straighter; they’ve got Lee Blackett, who’s a pretty sharp guy, and he seems just to straighten their attack up a little bit, which suits their kick early, kick hard, chase hard and contest the ball type of game.”
