DAILY MIRROR MONDAY 19.08.2019
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ADULT CHAT LINE^42
RED ROSES
RED FACES
Jones and his team
were caught with
their pants down by
Wales but have vowed
to learn from their mistakes
ENGLAND were caught with
their pants down by Wales- then left red-faced when
they tried to blame the ref.
Eddie Jones’ side missed the
chance to put England back on
top of the world for the first
time since 2004 by losing to
opponents they beat easily six
days earlier.
They instead handed their
arch-rivals the world No.1
ranking as Wales knocked New
Zealand off the top perch with
their 11th straight home win.
And in the process they
missed the opportunity to give
George Ford and Piers Francis
precious game time in
alternative half-back positions.
Jones described a contest
which turned on a moment of
English brain freeze as “almost
the perfect World Cup prep
his HIA, Heinz would be ruled
out of their second game.
Given Jones is taking only two
scrum-halves that presents a
problem. Yet the coach chose
not to switch his ‘emergency’
nine to scrum-half to practise.
Sir Clive
Woodward accused
him of missing a
“huge learning
opportunity”, saying:
“The whole point of
these matches is to
get yourself ready for
what is to come at
the World Cup.
“But England are
none the wiser about
a few key things after
this defeat, especially
at No.9 and 10.”
WALES – Try: North.
Con: Biggar. Pens:
Biggar, Halfpenny.
ENGLAND – Pens:
Ford 2.ever the referee decided was
right,” said Jones. “If he wants a
variation of the law, we’ve got to
be good enough to cope with it.”
Ben Youngs agreed: “As
players we have to take the one
lesson which is don’t switch off
when there’s a penalty.”
Better to learn lessons in a
game of little consequence than
at the World Cup, where there
is a good chance these teams
will contest a quarter-final.
After a game in which Eng-
land failed to score a first-half
point for the first time in eight
years, Jamie George admitted:
“We were too frantic at times.
“We learned the value of
discipline. We needed a lesson
like that and it’s better to learn
that now than in Japan.”
Another moment of concern
came when Willi Heinz left the
field for a concussion check.
Had that been England’s
World Cup opener and he failedgame for us”. He then took
French ref Pascal Gauzere to
task for allowing Wales to take
the quick penalty which led to
the game’s only try, when there
is no law preventing it.
Anthony Watson had just
been yellow carded and was
making his way off when man-
of-the-match Dan Biggar caught
England napping by restarting
play for George North to score.
Jones believed Gauzere
should not have allowed it and
said “maybe the yellow card
should have gone to the referee.
“But you’re not allowed to
comment on referees. World
Rugby are like Big Brother, they
have facial recognition
everywhere, you say one word
and you’re in trouble.”
The coach’s frustration
masked his team’s failure to
react quickly enough – as he
and his players later conceded.
“We had to cope with what-NORTH STAR
LEADING THE
WAY TO TOP
OF THE WORLD
BY ROB COLE
KEN OWENS admits he was a
relieved man that George North
scored the try to take Wales to
the top of the world.
North latched on to a
pin-point cross-kick from
man-of-the match Dan Biggar
to score the only try of the
game with Owens waiting
outside him, arms outstretched
to try to catch the kick.
The 13-6 win saw Wales
go top of the world
rankings, a month ahead of
the World Cup in Japan.
And Owens said: “It was relief
that I didn’t have to catch it as it
could have gone anywhere.
“I thought it was going to be
mine at one point, but it was
more relief that it wasn’t going
to bounce off my chest.”
Wales went to Turkey for a
nine-day camp after knocking
the All Blacks off the top for the
first time since 2009.
“It’s just a table and
something to talk about,” said
Owens. “I would prefer to be
there at the start of November.
“We are pretty happy, but we
know we have to improve again.
“Everything we spoke about
regarding having a better start,
having a lot more line-speed
defensively and being more
accurate in attack we did
against a great England side.”
An Owens overthrow at a
line-out the week before gifted
Luke Cowan-Dickie a vital try,
but the Welsh hooker was inch-
perfect with his throwing six
days on as he showed no signs
of any mental scarring. Wales
won all 15 line-outs they had.
“You have to back yourself.
We reviewed it and the
process was not
quite right at that
line-out and we
spoke about
sticking to what we
do,” said Owens.
“The scrum was
a lot better too and
we can improve
again. Like
everything, it is
small steps forward
and we need to
keep going in the
right direction
because we are
not the finished
article yet.”f r t e t r y.We re
pr
q
li
s s d a w a e s a
1 Wales ................. 89.44
2 New Zealand .. 89.40
3 Ireland .............. 88.69
4 South Africa ... 86.83
5 England .............86.79
6 Australia .......... 84.05
7 Scotland.............80.17
8 France ...............79.42
9 Japan...................77.21
10 Fiji^ .....................76.98
11 Argentina^ .........76.28
12 Georgia ............74. 4 2
13 Italy^ .................72.04
14 USA^ ...................71.94
15 Tonga^ ................71.49IRB WORLD
RANKINGSCLOSE CALL Owens celebratesWALES 13 ENGLAND 6
WORLD CUP WARM-UP
PRINCIPALITY STADIUM
BY ALEX SPINK
Rugby Correspondent
@alexspinkmirrorWatson is yellow-
carded (left) and
Wales pounce
through George
NorthQUICK OFF
THE MARK