Jones sees Twickenham collapse as ‘a great lesson’ for England

Eddie Jones was relieved to get England’s second-half horror show against Scotland out of the way, believing it was better to come in what was essentially a Six Nations dead rubber rather than at the Rugby World Cup.

England were in scintillating form in the first half at Twickenham and led 31-0 after four unanswered tries, only to then collapse spectacularly.

Scotland took control to lead by seven and only a last-ditch George Ford try and conversion allowed the hosts to claim a thrilling 38-38 draw against their Calcutta Cup rivals on Saturday.

Jones acknowledged afterwards that England have problems that need addressing but, having seen Wales wrap up the Grand Slam earlier in the day, he welcomed the dismal dip as a lesson.

“Unfortunately, it’s a reoccurring problem we have got,” he told ITV Sport. “I was just saying in the dressing room it was similar in the first Test against South Africa in June.

“We got out to a big lead, had the run of the game and then we lost control of the game and we don’t find a way to get the control of the game back.

It’s full-time…#CarryThemHome pic.twitter.com/teOkerQRaL

— England Rugby (@EnglandRugby) March 16, 2019

“We probably should have been ahead by more, we gave them some easy points at the start of the second half and then again couldn’t get control of the game back.

“It’s not something you can fix easily. It’s something that is going to take some digging deep into the team psyche. We think we’ve got a pretty good idea what the problem is, but it’s going to take time to fix. We’ll be able to do that pre-World Cup.

“I think it’s a great lesson for us. I would rather have these sort of games now than have them at the World Cup. We know what the problem is, but it’s not easy to fix.

“It’ll take time to fix it, but that’s why you have pre-World Cup preparation.”

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