What’s a grand slam? Victorious England coach Eddie Jones reacts as championship talk heats up
Australian jokingly says he doesn’t know what a grand slam is after his side moves closer to a clean sweep with 21-10 win over Ireland at Twickenham
England coach Eddie Jones jokingly said he didn’t even know what a grand slam was after his side moved closer to a Six Nations clean sweep with a 21-10 win over Ireland at Twickenham.
Saturday’s success made it three wins out of three for England under the Australian and left them top of the table.
Jones was appointed after England axed Stuart Lancaster following a Rugby World Cup where they became the first host nation to crash out in the group stage.
For all their playing resources and financial muscle, England have not been crowned Six Nations champions since 2011, with their last grand slam coming in their World Cup-winning year of 2003.
And with Wales, unbeaten in this season’s Six Nations, albeit drawing their tournament opener against Ireland, his team’s next opponents, Jones said: “I’m still trying to work out what a grand slam is.
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“All we want to do is beat Wales in two weeks (at Twickenham on March 12),” said Jones.
Jones was encouraged by England’s build-up play but less so by the quality of their first-half finishing.
“Ireland are the incumbent Six Nations champions so we expected a tough game. We left 10-15 points out there in the first half,” Jones said.
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“The structure of our attack was excellent, but the finishing wasn’t. This was a decent step up.”
Another of England’s rising stars, Maro Itoje, also impressed with the 21-year-old lock marking his first test start by out-jumping Devin Toner for an important line-out steal off an Ireland throw in the second half.
Jones, who had previously compared Itoje to a Vauxhall Viva, a modest family saloon car, said: “He’s gone up a level from a Viva – an Astra. I thought he did a good job.”
“They squeezed up the line-out really well,” said Ireland coach Joe Schmidt of England.
“That platform didn’t work for us to keep the pressure on,” the New Zealander added.
“Once you are in the (opposition) 22 and you have those opportunities, you can’t release that valve too easily.”
But he urged Ireland fans to keep faith with a new-look side ahead of their next match against an Italy team who’ve lost all three of their Six Nations matches so far this season.
“I think we tried to play positively and we demonstrated that today (Saturday) with the enterprise we showed. I am excited about some of the young guys that are coming in,” Schmidt said.
“It’s really tough at the moment, for players who take so much pride and make such a big effort to try to do the very best they can, that we are not quite getting the result.
“But I don’t seriously feel that we are a million miles away.”