England ‘still know where they are going’ despite miserable Six Nations, insists Eddie Jones

Questions to be answered: Eddie Jones says England are a team in transition

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Will Macpherson20 March 2021

Eddie Jones said his England team “still know where they are going” after a crushing defeat to Ireland – but admits they will undergo personnel changes after this summer’s Lions tour.

England started the Six Nations horribly with defeat to Scotland and, despite an excellent win against France last weekend, finished fifth in the table, just as they did in 2018.

Jones insisted there were “a lot of positive things in the game” in Dublin but admitted his team is undergoing a transition and will change.

“It was a difficult game for us,” he said. “But we still know where we are going. As disappointed as I am about the result, we still know where we are going and we’ll continue in a positive fashion.

“We need to assess where we are going. As I’ve said all along, we are going through a transition period in the team. This is almost a natural time for that to happen with two years before the World Cup. Those things will happen.”

When asked if there will be changes to personnel or tactics, Jones said: “It’s a bit of both. There’s personnel, we’ve had a fairly settled team for the last four years and that’s natural. But post the Lions maybe there will be changes to personnel.”

Jones said his team’s consistency was the issue and added that if he didn’t think he was still getting through to his players after almost six years in charge, then “I wouldn’t be coaching the team”.

“Just our consistency to apply pressure,” he said. “We started the game well, knew what we had to do. It was a different sort of game to the French game, which had a lot of ball movement, a lot of space.

“This was always going to be one of those tight and attritional games at Aviva Stadium. We started the game well, then let a few things disappoint us in the game, and we got away from that and allowed Ireland to get on the front foot.”