Monday 12 March 2018 13:53, UK
Eddie Jones says the breakdown deficiencies exposed during England's Six Nations title defence could persist until the World Cup.
A 22-16 loss to France in Paris allowed Ireland to seize the crown from England with a round to spare, ahead of Joe Schmidt's men travelling to Twickenham on Saturday in search of a Grand Slam.
The post-match statistics from the Stade de France revealed 11 turnovers and 16 penalties conceded, and Jones believes it could take another 18 months before his players learn to adjust to the difference in emphasis between international rugby and the Aviva Premiership, in which fewer numbers are committed to the ruck.
"It's not a clubs problem, it's our problem. We've got to fix it because that's the sort of rugby we're playing. I can't blame the Premiership," Jones said.
"We've got our problems that we've got to sort out at international level. Our players are used to playing a certain way and we're finding it hard to change their habits. Again, that's our responsibility and my coaching is not good enough.
"We can't expect club teams to play international rugby, just as we can't expect to play club rugby.
"It's a sizeable but fixable problem. We can address it and keep getting better at it, but the reality is that we probably won't get better at it until the World Cup."
Having lost to Scotland and France, defeat to Ireland would mark England's worst Six Nations performance since 2006 - the last time they lost three matches - but Jones is determined to retain perspective.
"We're not in any cycle. We've lost two games of rugby. One's by a hair's breadth against France and in the other one we were outplayed. So I don't see any cycle," Jones said.
"I don't think this spell was inevitable, but I think it's normal. If you think this is abnormal, I think that thinking is abnormal.
"We're being exposed in certain areas at the moment. And it's better happening now because it gives us a chance to fix it. We're finding out all the issues that we need to fix before the World Cup.
"I always said this year would be the hardest year we'd have. We win together, we lose together. There's no such thing as a cuddle or a b*****king.
"Each player will get what they need to get. We've got to pick them up to play well against Ireland. We're all disappointed, we're all gutted."
