Eddie Jones

England’s coach Eddie Jones leads an England team training session at The Lensbury in Teddington, south west London on February 3, 2021, ahead of the Six Nations rugby union match between England and Scotland on February 6.
Adrian DENNIS / POOL / AFP

Eddie Jones admits failure to prepare England for Scottish onslaught

Eddie Jones lauded a well-drilled Scotland side after watching England lose a Calcutta Cup match at Twickenham for the first time in 38 years

Eddie Jones

England’s coach Eddie Jones leads an England team training session at The Lensbury in Teddington, south west London on February 3, 2021, ahead of the Six Nations rugby union match between England and Scotland on February 6.
Adrian DENNIS / POOL / AFP

England coach Eddie Jones has admitted that he failed to prepare his team adequately for the challenge Scotland brought to Twickenham after suffering an 11-6 defeat to the visitors in their Six Nations opener.

Scotland overwhelmed England with a combination of set-piece ascendency and a better aerial game both kicking as well as chasing and receiving.

Eddie Jones concedes failure to prepare England

The first try scored by Scotland was set up by a hoist that England couldn’t bring down. SA-born winger Duhan van der Merwe showed the strength of his finishing game when he powered over at short range when it seemed England had closed him down.

England began to gain the upper hand in the second half but just as the hosts started to win scrumtime penalties Gregor Townsend acted, sending on more of his so-called Bok Jocks in the form of Oli Kebble and WP Nel, the pair ensured Scotland’s scrum held firm and the pack as a whole did well to stop England’s maul throughout the second stanza.

Brave Scotland trample England after enthusiastic opening

Jones conceded that England never gained a foothold in the match despite being within one score for much of the contest.

“We couldn’t find a way to get in the game,” he said. “On a day like that, the set piece is always going to be important – as are the contests in the air and the gain line.

“We couldn’t win any of those areas and seemed to be a yard off the pace. I have to blame myself – I didn’t prepare them well enough.

“Scotland played very well. They had a game plan they stuck to and executed it really well.

“They had enormous possession in the first half and a big penalty count. We can only blame ourselves for that. Congratulations to Scotland, they were too good for us today.”

Six Nations Rugby

Eddie Jones laments a lack of ball

Jones lamented the failure to get the England backs into the game as Scotland starved them of possession.

“In the first half, I think we had 25% possession,” he said. “I haven’t seen the second half stats but it won’t be much higher than that.

“If you’ve only got 25% possession, and some of that is deep in your 22, if you’ve got numbers 10-15 on your back it’s difficult to get the ball.

“It was a traditional England-Scotland game – it was about set-piece, winning the small battles around the gain line, winning the ball in the air, and we were second best in all those aspects. The backs in those situations become almost secondary, unfortunately.

“You never atone for a game like this, it stays with you for a long time,” he said.

“The most important thing is that we get together and find a way to improve our performance and play like England does against Italy next week.

“We’ll start working on Italy preparation tomorrow. We’ve got to put this game behind us and get on with it.”