A surprisingly upbeat Eddie Jones said he felt England played well at Twickenham on Sunday but paid a heavy price for a series of mistakes and bad decisions as Argentina claimed a notable 30-29 victory.
Not many among the sodden 80,000 crowd are likely to have gone away in quite such a positive mindset after England struggled to turn dominant possession into clear opportunities, though they did score nice tries in each half through Joe Cokanasiga and Jack van Poortvliet.
Hit hard by 10 penalties – six of which Emiliano Boffelli turned into points, as he also scored a try and landed a conversion – England were never able to really get on top despite leading 16-12 at half-time.
“It was a frustrating game. We played really well but made some elementary mistakes and some individual mistakes that kept inviting them back into the game,” Jones said.
“We did enough good things but we did some silly things and sometimes the errors come from trying too hard. We have to tidy it up a bit but we made enough line breaks to win maybe two games.”
Jones said that he feels referees are having an increasing influence on games, with “most moves ending in a penalty” and the spin-off is that players try to do too much, too soon when in possession.
“It was a stop-start game but there are no real big structural issues with our game,” he said. “I reckon if we play that game 100 times the result won’t be the same.
“I feel like the team went out and played how they wanted to play. But though we’ve made some silly mistakes, we can change those things pretty easily. I’m not sitting here thinking we have really strong problems – for the most part we dominated the game.”
England face Japan next Saturday, before hosting New Zealand and South Africa.
When are England’s 2022 Autumn International fixtures?
- England 29 Argentina 30, Sunday Nov 6
- England v Japan, Saturday Nov 12, 3.15pm, Twickenham
- England v New Zealand, Saturday Nov 19, 5.30pm, Twickenham
- England v South Africa, Saturday Nov 26, 5.30pm, Twickenham
Who are England playing in the 2022 Autumn Internationals?
England are playing four matches in November, against Argentina, Japan, New Zealand and South Africa.
How do I watch England’s Autumn International 2022 matches?
All four of England’s Autumn Internationals will be broadcast live on the online streaming platform Amazon Prime. You can join Amazon Prime for £8.99 per month, with a cut rate of £4.99 available for students.
What happened last year?
England were involved in three Autumn Internationals last year. In their first match, they beat Tonga 69-3 at Twickenham before putting in a superb display to beat Australia 32-15.
In the final match, England raced into an early lead against South African before being pegged back by the visitors. The home side needed a last-minute penalty from Marcus Smith to clinch a 27-26 victory.
This article is regularly updated with the latest information.
A surprisingly upbeat Eddie Jones said he felt England played well at Twickenham on Sunday but paid a heavy price for a series of mistakes and bad decisions as Argentina claimed a notable 30-29 victory.
Not many among the sodden 80,000 crowd are likely to have gone away in quite such a positive mindset after England struggled to turn dominant possession into clear opportunities, though they did score nice tries in each half through Joe Cokanasiga and Jack van Poortvliet.
Hit hard by 10 penalties – six of which Emiliano Boffelli turned into points, as he also scored a try and landed a conversion – England were never able to really get on top despite leading 16-12 at half-time.
“It was a frustrating game. We played really well but made some elementary mistakes and some individual mistakes that kept inviting them back into the game,” Jones said.
“We did enough good things but we did some silly things and sometimes the errors come from trying too hard. We have to tidy it up a bit but we made enough line breaks to win maybe two games.”
Jones said that he feels referees are having an increasing influence on games, with “most moves ending in a penalty” and the spin-off is that players try to do too much, too soon when in possession.
“It was a stop-start game but there are no real big structural issues with our game,” he said. “I reckon if we play that game 100 times the result won’t be the same.
“I feel like the team went out and played how they wanted to play. But though we’ve made some silly mistakes, we can change those things pretty easily. I’m not sitting here thinking we have really strong problems – for the most part we dominated the game.”
England face Japan next Saturday, before hosting New Zealand and South Africa.
When are England’s 2022 Autumn International fixtures?
- England 29 Argentina 30, Sunday Nov 6
- England v Japan, Saturday Nov 12, 3.15pm, Twickenham
- England v New Zealand, Saturday Nov 19, 5.30pm, Twickenham
- England v South Africa, Saturday Nov 26, 5.30pm, Twickenham
Who are England playing in the 2022 Autumn Internationals?
England are playing four matches in November, against Argentina, Japan, New Zealand and South Africa.
How do I watch England’s Autumn International 2022 matches?
All four of England’s Autumn Internationals will be broadcast live on the online streaming platform Amazon Prime. You can join Amazon Prime for £8.99 per month, with a cut rate of £4.99 available for students.
What happened last year?
England were involved in three Autumn Internationals last year. In their first match, they beat Tonga 69-3 at Twickenham before putting in a superb display to beat Australia 32-15.
In the final match, England raced into an early lead against South African before being pegged back by the visitors. The home side needed a last-minute penalty from Marcus Smith to clinch a 27-26 victory.
This article is regularly updated with the latest information.
