Autumn Nation Series 2021: Eddie Jones’ England far from rubbish

Rugby’s Autumn nations series comes to full life this weekend, with South Africa at Murrayfield, New Zealand at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin and Australia at Twickenham.

International matches usually end with players looking weary and battered. Television viewers may be in a similar condition by the evening if they have taken in these three matches beginning at one o’clock. It’s quite an endurance test.

Some may, of course, prefer to watch Italy v Argentina, rather than Scotland v South Africa, since both matches start at one o’clock. Not me, but I do hope that this young Italian team get the win they have been looking for and, I think, deserving for some time.

Scotland’s victory against Australia wasn’t greeted with the heart-felt relief felt when Matt Giteau missed a late conversion that would have sealed yet another Australia win in 2009. The miss meant that Scotland scraped home 9-8, recording their first win against the Wallabies since 1982.

This time was different. I won’t say I expected we would win, but I thought it quite likely that we would. Indeed Scotland has not won their last three matches against Australia.

South Africa will be a more challenging prospect, even though Australia beat them twice in the summer. No international team poses a stiffer physical challenge. This summer, the Lions tried to play them at their own game and lost. You have to ask them different questions. Wales failed to do this last week and lost, if only narrowly.

They were perhaps unlucky. It rained constantly, making a passing game risky. In pre-Covid days the roof of the Principality stadium would have been closed. Even so, Wales came close to winning.

It may be that South Africa missed the generalship of the remarkable Faf de Klerk, and he is still unavailable, recovering from an operation. That improves Scotland’s chances. Even so, only the most perfervid Scot could deny that South Africa start narrowly favourites.

Ireland knows what it is to beat New Zealand, something Scotland have never done, and Wales not for more than sixty years. That said, their last match against the All Blacks in the World Cup quarter-finals resulted in a thumping defeat.

Ireland, remarkably, are almost a club side, eleven of their starting XV being from Leinster. Leinster are by some way the best team in what is now the United Rugby Championship, but not for a couple of years as good as the best English and French clubs.

Ireland, coached by Andy Farrell, are gradually refreshing their team, though Johnny Sexton still holds sway at fly-half. The redoubtable CJ Stander has returned to his South African farm, and other stalwarts – Keith Earls, Conor Murray, Cian Healey and Peter O’Mahoney – are now on bench duty. It’s hard to see Ireland holding the All Blacks today.

And so we come to England. Some refreshment is taking place here too, with the Vunipola brothers and George Ford discarded – for the time being anyway. If you are to believe what you read on social media and the comments sections on websites, England rugby is in a hell of a mess – or rather, the national team is. This is nonsense, even though this year’s Six Nations was poor – the poorest for a good many years.

After all, the English Premiership is flourishing. Indeed an outside observer might say that England suffers from an age-old problem: too many good players, so choosing and blending an XV is difficult.

I think the truth is that many English rugby supporters have fallen out of love with Eddie Jones. So the team selected to meet his native Australia has been met with boos, catcalls and abuse.

He gets no credit even for bringing in Marcus Smith, the new untested darling of fans and journos, at fly-half. The pleasure this gives is overshadowed or poisoned by his retention of his captain Owen Farrell at inside centre.

As I’ve remarked before, Farrell has gone from being the top darling to the scapegoat responsible for all England’s failures. In truth, I think Farrell was never quite as good as some had him being and is now nothing like as poor as his detractors say.

Well, reports have it that he retains the confidence of his teammates, not only of Eddie Jones. Given young Smith’s inexperience, it seems sensible to have Farrell at his elbow. In any case, Farrell remains one of the best goal-kickers England have ever had.

There has also been fierce criticism of Jones’s decision to move Manu Tuilagi from inside centre to the right-wing, a position of which he has almost no experience. Jones is unruffled. Man “can tackle all these positions – 11, 12, 13, 14- with aplomb, and he is in the best condition of his life” – this reportedly on account of a new diet his wife has put him on. Wings anyway are no longer confined to a lonely time on the touchline, waiting for a pass that never comes, but are instead expected to pop up all over the place.

So when there is a scrum or lineout on England’s right wing, look out for Manu surging on to an inside pass from Smith or Farrell. Then you may hear the munch-munch of critics eating their words.

I expect England to win this. That wouldn’t prove that they have become a great team overnight; any more than losing would prove they are rubbish.