Both scrum-halves exploited French weaknesses around the fringes that Eddie Jones’s coaching team will contain identified before the match in ParisSaturday’s game highlighted two of the key themes seen from England since Eddie Jones took over. The team is fitting comfortable playing at much higher intensity than before and the meticulous (extremely careful about details) research and analysis that Jones is renowned for are bearing fruit on the pitch. This should be exiguous surprise from a side coached by the man who came up with a gameplan that allowed Japan to beat South Africa at the World Cup.
It was a ferocious game from the start and England looked comfortable in it. Throughout the Six Nations they contain tried to play faster and back themselves more and particularly in the moment half they began to thrive in that intensity. It was so physical and so snappily but they showed their huge progress in this Six Nations by being able to cope and consider clearly amid it all. A year ago I consider they might contain been blown away by that French team, who had a poor tournament but were far from poor on Saturday.
Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com