Eddie Jones blames himself for England’s shock defeat by Scotland: ‘This stays with you for a long time’

Shock defeat: England had no answers for Scotland at Twickenham
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Will Macpherson6 February 2021

Eddie Jones took responsibility for England's defeat to Scotland at Twickenham, saying it was the sort of result that would stay with his team “for a long time”.

Scotland emerged from a fine game 11-6 winners - their first victory at Twickenham since 1983. They were superb, but were helped by England, who gave away 15 penalties.

This was the second successive season that England have lost their opening game of the Championship. They will be looking to bounce back at Twickenham against Italy in seven days’ time. 

“You never atone for a game like this,” said Jones. “This stays with you for a long time. But the most important thing is that we get together and we find a way to improve our performance and play like England do against Italy next week.”

Jones said England lost because of poor preparation in the build-up to the game, with four of their players coming into the fixture having not played since December 6.

“It’s one of those days,” he said. “Unfortunately it wasn’t good. As I said to them [his team], I didn’t get preparation right. We didn’t play well enough so when we don’t play well enough it’s the responsibility of the coach. We will start the preparation for Italy tomorrow. We’ve got to put this game behind us and get on with it.

“We just couldn't find a way to get into the game. On a day like this the set-piece will always be important, the contest in the air will be important, the gain lines will be important, and we couldn't win any of those areas. We just seemed to be off the pace and I have to blame myself, we didn't prepare the team well enough.

“Scotland played very well. They had a particular gameplan which they stuck to and executed really well. They had enormous possession in the first half and a big penalty count and we've only got ourselves to blame for the discipline issues. It was just one of those days.”

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