A bullish Eddie Jones insisted he had no regrets whatsoever as he addressed his side’s alleged lack of attacking threat in the second half of Saturday’s Autumn Nations Cup victory over Ireland.
England ran out 18-7 winners at Twickenham but were outscored by their visitors after the break, leading to Jones fielding questions on whether he held any frustrations at not building further on a 12-0 half-time lead.
“I’m never disappointed when we beat Ireland,” he said. “I know how hard it is to beat Ireland and I know how hard the boys worked to beat Ireland.
“We have been beaten by them and it’s not a nice feeling. We’ve got a good feeling in our dressing room, they probably haven’t got a real good feeling in their dressing room. You can be disappointed, I’m not.”
England put in a monumental defensive shift to keep Ireland at bay in the second period on Saturday and were within six minutes of recording a second consecutive shutout, having beaten Georgia 40-0 in Round 1.
Three players, including man of the match Maro Itoje, made more than 20 tackles as the hosts soaked up pressure following two superb Jonny May tries in the first half.
Ireland eventually found their way over through a well-worked Jacob Stockdale score but it came too late to spark a fightback as the hosts held on for a hard-earned win.
And England’s coach was delighted by the way his side fronted up as they took control of Group A ahead of this weekend’s trip to Llanelli to take on Wales.
“England versus Ireland games are always tough games,” Jones added.
“They’ve got a strong forward pack, we’ve got a strong forward pack. It’s a tough old game. At times, we dominated physically and we’ve got a bit more to go there.”
England have now won five of their seven Tests against Ireland under Jones and the two sides are due to meet again in the final round of next spring’s Guinness Six Nations on March 20.
