England rugby captain Jamie George made an armband-worthy comment about former coach Eddie Jones after his side lost 52-17 to their former employers in his first game in charge of the Japan national team.
The hosts in Tokyo started brightly and their energetic nature was reminiscent of England under Jones. But Steve Borthwick’s side had too much quality and got over the line eight times despite Charlie Ewells being sent off for a dangerous tackle.
Marcus Smith made a positive start to England’s summer tour with 13 points, including a smart try from a set-piece, but George also predicted a bright future for Japan under Jones.
“We couldn’t have more respect for Eddie as a person and as a coach,” he told RugbyPass TV. “Japan came here and played at a very fast tempo. I think they will be very successful in the coming years.”
The skipper was delighted with both the result and the performance against a difficult Japanese side, with the only negative being that Ewels could have been suspended for a dangerous clear-out.
“It was a really tough game and the conditions were very difficult,” George added. “I’m very proud of the way we went about our business today. It’s always going to be difficult to come here and get a result. We’ve got some really talented backs with a lot of pace and we were able to show that today. “
Jones, who can let his fiery personality out at times, was equally full of praise for the Challenge Cup winners. “It was a really tough match,” he said, recalling his first match after controversially leaving Australia. “England are a strong, powerful team, but I was really pleased with the set-pieces that kept us in the game for so long.
“We have been trying to create chances in attack but we have not been able to finish them. Our movement around the ball is still not sharp enough.”
And Borthwick was a happy man after Chandler Cunningham-Smith, Immanuel Feyi-Waboso, Henry Slade, Alex Mitchell, Ben Earl, Harry Randall and Sam Underhill joined Smith on the scoresheet at the National Stadium.
He enthused, “I’m really satisfied with the result. I thought the players’ utilization was excellent.” “In the second half of the game, our cohesion was a bit broken against a very fast and skilful Japanese team, who capitalized on their opportunities really well towards the end of the game.
“You can see how Japan will play. They are really, really dangerous. We had to defend really well to stop them, especially in the first 20 or 30 minutes.”
