England's Lions hopefuls hit skids with Triple Frown

A very strange thing happened over the last week or so. It started with Anthony Watson straight after the France game, followed by Jonny May and then Ben Youngs, with all three being refreshingly candid in interviews in which they conceded England’s poor form in the Six Nations before the France game had been down to them.

- BRENDAN GALLAGHER

It was their personal responsibility and down to England’s own limited approach and poor execution.

They also all expressed the thought that they had turned a corner against the French, rediscovered the way forward and the future was still bright. So far so good. England getting back on track.

And then, on the eve of this game, that welcome whiff of honesty and realism was replaced by the unmistakable smell of bullsh*t. Eddie Jones piped up with the latest example of the disruptive, bungling, wrongheaded twaddle for which he is often famed.

Hence his utter nonsense about the English media planting rat poison in his team’s minds with their criticism earlier in the tournament and their glowing reviews of their performance against France which surely seemed to offer the template ahead.

Not necessarily always in style but in positivity, tempo and approach. Keep playing like that and you won’t go far wrong. And even if you occasionally lose playing in that fashion there would always be honour in defeat and the fans – when we see them again – will stay onside.

No sooner had Jones done his worst than you could hear the hiss of air escaping from the English balloon. Instead of building on the feel-good factor of a great win over France, their coach was sounding off again, not only against those in the media for daring to call a spade a spade but he also warned that you can’t expect to play that kind of rugby every day or even in two successive matches.

Why not? The All Blacks have been doing it for a century or more.