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Eddie Jones has been frustrated by England’s inability to perform across the full 80 minutes but they are on their best SixNations winning streak since 2004.
Eddie Jones has been frustrated by England’s inability to perform across the full 80 minutes but they are on their best Six Nations winning streak since 2004. Photograph: Dan Mullan/The RFU via Getty Images
Eddie Jones has been frustrated by England’s inability to perform across the full 80 minutes but they are on their best Six Nations winning streak since 2004. Photograph: Dan Mullan/The RFU via Getty Images

Eddie Jones’s astute changes leave Six Nations rivals playing catch-up

This article is more than 7 years old
Paul Rees
England have harnessed the power of their squad as they close on the All Blacks record and it may come down to Scotland to halt their grand slam charge

Eddie Jones will soon have a bigger record collection than the late John Peel. If England beat Italy at Twickenham next Sunday, and it is all but a case of when, it would be their 10th consecutive Six Nations victory and would equal the longest winning run in the tournament’s 134-year history.

The Tasmanian has added devil to England since taking over as head coach 14 months ago but the transformation from World Cup laughing stock to a side that are two home wins away from equalling New Zealand’s record of 18 successive Test victories for a tier-one nation is stark. If they make it 19, it would mean the first back-to-back grand slams in the Six Nations era.

England set the record of 10 straight championship victories in the 1880s and repeated it four decades later. They are on their best streak in the Six Nations since the World Cup-winning era, when they won nine in a row between 2002 and 2004, a tally matched by France a year later, and this despite Jones expressing frustration that his side have yet to play for 80 minutes.

They were hanging on at times in Cardiff last weekend and the match was similar to Wales’s meeting with New Zealand in 2014, when they were leading 16-15 with 11 minutes to go having matched the All Blacks but struggling to convert pressure into tries. Fifteen of the 23 that day were involved against England when a 16-14 lead with five minutes to go was not enough.

Like New Zealand, and South Africa in the 2015 World Cup quarter-final when the hapless Alex Cuthbert conceded a late try on his wing, England found a way to win. If Jones’s men defeat Italy and Scotland in the next two rounds to equal New Zealand’s record, they will not be serenaded as the All Blacks were when they recorded their 18th consecutive victory last October against Australia. The question of whether anyone could beat the best team in any sport in the world was answered by Ireland in Chicago two weeks later.

No one, least of all Jones, is suggesting England are invincible. The bulk of the players in the squad were involved in the World Cup failure and the head coach has redecorated rather than rebuilt. Selection was an issue in the World Cup – not least the dropping of George Ford for the group match against Wales, which had the effect of a brake being suddenly applied, together with substitutions that did not work, such as Ford replacing Sam Burgess against Wales, which liberated Jamie Roberts – but Jones has been astute. When he has made mistakes, he has made a quick repair, bringing off Luther Burrell and Teimana Harrison after half an hour in the first and third Tests in Australia, respectively, and his replacements helped deliver victory over France and Wales this month, while too many of Wales’s changes last weekend were downgrades. That England have been rescued by their bench in the first two matches means Jones will use the opportunity against a side that have lost their last nine matches in the Six Nations to look at new combinations and assess his options in positions such as full-back, inside-centre and hooker.

England have played under Jones without a forceful presence in midfield but Ben Te’o has made an impact off the bench this month in matches when the gainline breaking of Billy Vunipola has been missed and quick ball less abundant. Wales targeted George Ford’s channel last weekend and Liam Williams scored their try from a scrum having run at the fly-half. Nor, at a time when the game is speeding up, can England afford to become stuck in one style of playing, something that caught up with Wales and Ireland.

Too many of Wales’ changes against England last week were downgrades. Photograph: David Rogers/Getty Images

England shook up the team to face Italy at Twickenham four years ago and won 18-11 without scoring a try. It promises to be different this time as Conor O’Shea, assisted by Mike Catt and Brendan Venter, struggle to make a difference to a team whose players are inured to losing for club and country. In four of the six matches in the championship so far the losers have secured a bonus point: the exceptions have been the Azzurri who, after pushing Wales for an hour, were quickly disassembled by Ireland.

Last weekend’s match in Cardiff highlighted an advantage England have over the rest, including France: strength in depth. While Wales had to dust down Cuthbert on the right wing after George North failed to recover from a dead leg, England were without the injured Anthony Watson, had Jonny May on the bench and ignored Semesa Rokoduguni, Marland Yarde, Chris Ashton, Christian Wade and David Strettle. Jones is maximising his resources and the last time England did that, they won the World Cup. That is Jones’s target.

During their run of 15 consecutive victories under him they have beaten all the other teams in the top 10 of the world rankings, with the exception of New Zealand who will be at Twickenham in the autumn of 2018. By then, he will expect England to have graduated into a team that are ready to conquer the world rather than the Six Nations.

England are the only unbeaten team after two rounds that have been more open than in recent years and they may, like last year, clinch the title before the final round. Any temptation Wales may have to experiment in Scotland on Saturday will be tempered by May’s World Cup draw: victory would cement their place in the top eight of the world rankings and avoid a repeat of 2015, when they were grouped with Australia and England, although Argentina are currently in ninth position.

Scotland resemble Wales in 2005, a team playing with abandon. They outscored France by two tries to one but were worn down by the home side’s imposing pack and a succession of injuries, including one to Greig Laidlaw that has ruled the captain and scrum-half out of the rest of the tournament. The encounter at Murrayfield this coming weekend has the potential to replicate the 1988 meeting between the sides in Cardiff, which was a fiesta of running rugby. Wales may not want it that way but they need to score more tries.

Having achieved a healthy points difference in Italy, Ireland have rather more demanding matches at home to France and away to Wales before finishing with what may still be a title decider against England in Dublin. Simple victories would leave them on 14 points but England would be on 18 if they achieve bonus-point successes against Italy and Scotland.

It is the match at Twickenham between England and Scotland that may be the championship’s defining evening, rather than the one in Dublin a week later. It is 34 years since the Scots last won at HQ but, at a time of record breaking, do they have it in them to give England the needle?

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