Not so long ago the criticism of this England side was that they could not get out of their patterns and play on instinct. All too often we saw boot being put to ball when there was an overlap, it was prescriptive and if it was on the whole effective it caused little in the way of excitement. More recently I have seen encouraging signs but I don’t agree when I hear Eddie Jones say that England are just one pass or one kick away from clicking in attack.
I hope that behind the scenes his messaging to his players is different because I see a side operating in attack at no more than 60-70% of their potential. By comparison, before Friday night’s match against Wales, France had scored 103 points and 13 tries, 10 of which have come after a maximum of two phases and all of them in fewer than five.
