Bear's Sports Blog

England Under Pressure 

England go in to Saturday’s game against Scotland at Murrayfield under intense pressure, most of which has been created by their Head Coach.

Eddie Jones’ constant jibes against England’s imminent opponents are only serving to raise the game of those opponents and one has to wonder what Jones thinks he is achieving other than making the life of his squad more difficult.

Jones’ insistence on playing players out of position also remains a huge concern with Owen Farrell and Tom Curry the most obvious casualties of this misguided policy. I feel desperately sorry for both of these players as Owen Farrell’s impact on the game is being severely limited by playing him at inside centre not to mention the increased physical workload of a player who is having to cover his own position but also the 10 channel due to the defensive frailties of George Ford. Tom Curry looked a world class openside at the World Cup but he now looks a very ordinary 8 and this is completely unfair on the player in my opinion. We are blessed with very good options at 8 in the form of Dombrandt and Sam Simmons so why on earth are they not in the squad?

Jones’ confused selection just gets worse with the dropping of arguably England’s best player from last week, Courtenay Lawes who should be operating at lock next to Maro Itoje.

The back line looks shambolic with Elliot Daly targeted bt France last week under the high ball and he should be moved back to his best position at inside centre or be dropped. Ben Youngs has been dropped but he along with Joe Marler should not even be close to getting in to this squad.

Eddie Jones currently has an embarrassment of riches available to him in English rugby and I can never remember a time when we have been blessed with so many talented players competing for places but Jones must look to the younger players now if he is to save his job and more importantly to develop this England side.

Scotland will be licking their lips in anticipation of this encounter and they will know that they should have beaten Ireland last week. I do not expect them to make the same number of mistakes in front of their own fans tomorrow and take Scotland to win by one score.