Eddie Jones was in a familiar fiery mood after England’s Six Nations loss to Scotland on Saturday.
His side suffered a narrow 20-17 defeat, after leading for most of the game but letting it slip away in the last 15 minutes.
Jones was under scrutiny after selecting Marcus Smith in the Six Nations squad, ahead of the experienced and in-form George Ford.
However, an injury to Owen Farrell meant that Ford was called up to and came on yesterday with 17 minutes remaining in the game while England were 17-10 ahead.
Smith had scored all of England’s points as they led 17-10 with 15 minutes remaining. Scotland were then awarded a rather fortunate penalty try after Luke Cowan-Dickie was deemed to have purposely slapped a Scotland cross-field kick into touch denying them a chance to score a try.
Jones defended his decision to replace Smith in the middle of yesterday’s match saying that “it’s a 23-man squad. We felt George could come on and do a job for us in the last 20 minutes.”
Jones’s decision to not bring on a hooker after Cowan-Dickie was sin binned also backfired when prop Joe Marler was forced to throw into a lineout, which England subsequently lost leading to a Scottish penalty and the winning kick.
Scotland vs England Six Nations highlights
Again Jones defended his players and explained his decision not to bring on a hooker: “We thought we could wait for a scrum because we wanted to keep the back rowers on at that stage. Scotland were moving the ball around well. We thought we needed that third back rower on. Certainly I take the blame for that.”
England were leading the game 17-10 when Cowan-Dickie was yellow carded after deliberately slapping a cross-field kick into touch which denied Scottish winger Darcy Graham the chance of fielding the kick and scoring.
The hooker apologised on social media for his mistake, which arguably cost his side the Six Nations game.
Just want to apologise to all you supporters for today. I let myself and you guys down. Every time I play for my country I want nothing more than to make you guys proud. Thanks for all the support. Looking forward to bouncing back next week! 🌹❤️
— Luke cowan dickie (@1_Dickie) February 5, 2022
“Just want to apologise to all you supporters for today. I let myself and you guys down,” Cowan-Dickie said.
“Every time I play for my country I want nothing more than to make you guys proud. Thanks for all the support. Looking forward to bouncing back next week!”
Jones also had his say on the incident.
"Luke is disappointed, that happens in the moment. He played exceptionally well and he is very disappointed, but all the boys are supporting him,
"We have only got ourselves to blame. We are massively disappointed that we lost and Scotland deserved to win. We dominated a lot of the game but didn’t get the points out of the domination."
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