Chiefs trio help England to victory
By Mark Stevens
13/3/21
Eddie Jones has thrown down the gauntlet by insisting England grabbed a head start on France in the race for the 2023 World Cup.
Tries from Anthony Watson and Maro Itoje helped England - who included Exeter Chiefs trio Luke Cowan-Dickie, Henry Slade and Jonny Hill in their match-day squad - edge out the resurgent French 23-20 at Twickenham, ending Les Bleus’ Six Nations Grand Slam hopes.
Antoine Dupont and Damian Penaud crossed for France, but the visitors ran out of steam and England’s savvier game management steered them back to winning ways.
France will host the 2023 World Cup and are already being touted as among the favourites to lift the Webb Ellis Cup on home soil – but wily coach Jones insisted England are determined to match them stride for stride.
“They’re being described as the best team in the world,” said Jones. “They are a good team, they are a quality team with quality players and they are well coached.
“We said to our players before the game we’re going to be racing them to the World Cup. They are a good team, they’re developing, we’re developing, and it’s going to be a good race between the two of us. And we got a bit of a start on it today.”
England’s ill-discipline and ragged tactics contributed heavily to their Six Nations losses to both Scotland and Wales, and Australian boss Jones had demanded an upsurge in those areas against France.
The home side offered a greater balance between attack and containment, and certainly improved their disciplinary approach.
And Jones now believes England are back on track in terms of developing their game plan for the next World Cup.
“We’ve always had the plan post the 2019 World Cup that we needed to create a game that would take us to the next World Cup,” said Jones. “But we always felt we needed to develop our game, so we started that at the start of the Six Nations and we’re slowly, slowly getting better at getting the right balance in our game between passing, running and kicking. And today was probably another step forward.
“We showed a really good attitude, great leadership by Owen (Farrell) and full credit to the players and coaches.
“I think Maro (Itoje) and Owen particularly stood out in terms of the way they led the team, they played at their best, and then contributed to show a lot of composure in terms of coping with difficult periods.”