Get all your news in one place.
100’s of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
The Independent UK
The Independent UK
Sport
Duncan Bech

Steve Borthwick was right – England weren’t good at anything, admits Eddie Jones

PA Wire

Eddie Jones admits that Steve Borthwick was “probably right” when stating he had inherited an England team that “weren’t good at anything”.

Borthwick, who took over from Jones as head coach in December, offered the damning assessment following last Saturday’s 29-23 Six Nations defeat by Scotland at Twickenham.

Jones was sacked after presiding over a dire 2022 and, having now taken charge of Australia, he accepts his attempts to enhance England’s attack created problems.

“Well he’s probably right and that’s part of the problem,” Jones told the podcast EDDIE. “We were trying to morph a team that had had a very good set-piece and very good kicking game.

“The way that the game is played at the moment, that will win you games but it’s probably not good enough to be World Cup champions.

“And so expanding the attack sometimes takes away from your strengths and they’re going through that difficult period now where they’re trying to get that balance right in their game.

“But Steve will fix it. There’s no doubt he’ll fix it. And keep blaming me. That’s all right, I’ve got a pretty strong back and pretty strong shoulders to absorb that.”

England play Italy at Twickenham in the second round of matches this weekend.

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100’s of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
Our Picks
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.