VIDEO: Newlands win gives coach Eddie some relief
REACTION: England head coach Eddie Jones hailed his team’s composure after they beat the Boks 25-10 at Newlands on Saturday.
England endured a tough 2018 so far after their lowly fifth-place finish in this year’s Six Nations and their series defeat to South Africa.
However, they did show glimpses of the form that made them that made a formidable outfit in 2016 and 2017 in the third Test against the Boks in Cape Town.
England were tactically better than the Boks in wet conditions in Cape Town and their pack also dominated play around the park.
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“We just handled the bigger moments better today [Saturday],” said Jones. “If you look back at the last two Tests, we put ourselves in a position to win the games. When the pressure or the scoreboards changes we haven’t handled those situations well and today we kept our composure and just focussed on the next play and it was good leadership by the players out there and much greater composure.
Jones added: “Discipline is a matter of trusting your teammates and trusting the system and not trying to solve things by yourself.
“I think the team if anything was overeager to play well. They felt the pressure of losing some games and today I think we have really focussed on just playing each play as it comes.”
While losing the series is a big disappointment, a few players have impressed Jones over the last few weeks.
“I think Jonny May has been outstanding all tour. I think he has been incredible. He nearly gave them a try and then he saved a try and I thought he was going to run into one of the corporate boxes in the far stand.
“I thought he was absolutely outstanding the whole series. He scored three tries and he was probably involved in at least two or three others.
“Tom Curry has played three Test matches on the hop against probably the biggest physical pack in the world. He probably played more Test matches now than he has Premiership games, so he has got a lot of potential,” Jones added.
By Warren Fortune
@FortuneWarren
@rugby365com
