ENGLAND BOSS EDDIE Jones says he wasn’t surprised to see his selection decisions for his side’s clash with Ireland work out in a dominant 24-12 win.
The final scoreline didn’t reflect England’s superiority at Twickenham as Andy Farrell’s Ireland were well beaten.
Jones had faced great scrutiny for selecting centre Jonathan Joseph on the left wing, picking Elliot Daly at fullback, continuing with Tom Curry at number eight, and also naming four locks in his matchday 23 as he chose a 6/2 bench split.
Daly and Curry were among England’s best performers, while Joseph did an excellent job out wide, and Jones’ decision to go with a forward-heavy bench worked out as the English dismantled Ireland’s pack.
Two first-half tries allowed England into a 17-0 lead and Ireland were never likely to come back from there.
“We played with a lot of control, we read the conditions well, read the referee well,” said Jones post-match.
“At half time, if it was a cricket game it could have been declared.”
“We have been building up. I got the preparation wrong for the France game and apologised for that. We were good against Scotland, really good against Scotland in difficult conditions, and then we took another step up today and we’ll take another step up when we played Wales.”
Regarding the widespread questioning of his selections, Jones was in sarcastic form.
“We’re going to go for six locks next week to give you something to write about.
“I don’t need vindication. I pick the team I think is right for the week and some of you guys [the media] are so clever. You’re all clever, so I’ve just got to suck it all up, enjoy what you say and try to learn from you. Maybe I can pick a better team next week.”
England will enjoy their break weekend next weekend before Wales visit Twickenham, then Jones’ men travel to Italy on the final weekend of the championship – when they may well still be in the running to win the Six Nations.
“There’s a lot more to come,” said Jones. “We played tough in the first 40 today, probably took our foot off a little bit in the second half but they were always going to get some ball and get some referee’s calls.
“We had to defend, which we did pretty well. We’re disappointed to give the try away at the end so we’ll need to be better against Wales.”
