British media have begun to turn on England coach Eddie Jones, following his side's surrender of their Six Nations crown to Ireland yesterday morning.
England's 22-16 capitulation to France, coupled with Ireland's 28-8 victory over Scotland means that Jones' side have lost back-to-back games for the first time since 2009, and could conceivably finish the Six Nations in fifth place, should results go against them.
Writing in the Sunday Telegraph, famed rugby writer Mick Cleary didn't hold back in his criticism of England's disastrous Six Nations defence.
"A splinter of doubt has been driven hard into the heart of English rugby, an apprehension that this is deja vu all over again, that a side with supposed World Cup credentials is not all that it is cracked up to be," he wrote.
"Much as the match was billed as a test of England's 2019 World Cup credentials, the context of this encounter was that France have nothing like the status that once they had. At best, they are a middling side: at worst, a raggle-taggle bunch of misfits. These are not the All Blacks."
"Eddie Jones believed that he had constructed a side that could cope with whatever came their way. This last two weeks has shown the fallacy of that line of argument. One bad defeat can be due to adverse circumstance, one of those things. There is no such get-out clause after this loss."
Esteemed writer - and All Blacks critic - Stephen Jones also weighed in.
"It was the worst England performance since Eddie Jones arrived, inferior to the poor effort against Scotland. It was fractured, bewildered, confused, clodhopping."
"The gap in physicality was enormous. England were battered by bigger and better men, forwards who came out to play like international forwards — the combinations of willows, twigs and striplings which England sent out were lamentably ill-equipped to hold France."
Ex-England skipper Lawrence Dallaglio praised Ireland for their title win, also warning England what to expect when the two sides meet at Twickenham next week.
"If England don't sort themselves out this week they will be on the end of a hiding from Ireland on Saturday. That is clear. Ireland have been head and shoulders above the other five nations in this campaign."
"If there is a good time in a World Cup cycle to go through the test of character that Eddie Jones's squad face then it may be now."
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