World Cup-winning coach Clive Woodward has led the praise for Eddie Jones after the Australian guided England to the Six Nations rugby title at his first attempt.
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They will head to Paris aware of the dangers France will pose despite their poor showing in the Six Nations, and who will be keen to halt England’s charge to the Grand Slam.
“It’s nice to win the Championship but as a team we haven’t achieved what we want to achieve yet and that’s the Grand Slam”, said Jones.
“Winning the title is a fantastic achievement by the team”. You look at the squad and it’s still very much the same one as in the World Cup. “We can’t wait to get to Paris and to do the business”. We went to Dublin in 2011, on my 50th cap, and just got blown away. France are always going to be a hard side and they showed that at times today, they can play absolutely sublime rugby. “So we need to make sure they don’t have too many sublime moments”. “That squad’s changed itself and the real credit has to go to the players”.
England possesses the necessary talent to dominate the Six Nations for several years to come, according to former France fly-half Thomas Castaignede.
England established scarcely believable 16-0 and 25-7 leads against Wales before surviving a late fightback from Warren Gatland’s men that sent ripples of panic through the stands at Twickenham – the setting for their collapse to the same opponents at the World Cup.
However, when asked which of his players had impressed him most during the tournament, Jones singled the deposed captain from the World Cup who has been switched from openside to blindside flanker. We made a decision to shake hands and get on with it.
Robshaw has responded by playing all four Six Nations matches and Jones cites the 29-year-old flanker as England’s standout performer of the tournament, despite the emergence of players such as 21-year-old Saracens lock Maro Itoje.
Wales had nothing to lose at the end, so they started throwing the ball around when England were down to 14 men, and they scored a couple of tries.
“Everyone in the team appreciates the work he does on and off the field and behind the scenes”.
A lot of the focus in the week will be about how England have bottled Grand Slam showdowns in recent years.
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“There’s a confidence that oozes from this England side, as if Eddie Jones says “I’ll take all the flack and pressure and you guys do the job you’re paid to do and play rugby” ” , said Davies. I think we have a good bunch of guys here who have been through some up and downs and hopefully those experiences will count this week. We won the game 25-21, and we’ve won.
