Intelligent Jones will turn England’s fortunes around – Moody

Lewis Moody has backed Eddie Jones to turn England’s flailing form around ahead of the 2019 Rugby World Cup.

After winning 24 of his first 25 matches in charge of England, Jones’ men have fallen to five successive defeats and could face a series whitewash against South Africa on Saturday.

A 25-13 loss to Scotland during the Six Nations began England’s barren run, with reverses against France and Ireland following in the final matches of the tournament.

England have made strong starts to both Tests against the Springboks this month, however they have been unable to hold on as the hosts have stormed back to victory.

Following last weekend’s 23-12 loss in Bloemfontein there were some criticism of Jones and his coaching staff, but Moody has faith the Australian can get England back to winning ways.

“It’s so easy to criticise when things are going wrong, but the time to be critical is when you are winning,” World Cup winner Moody told Omnisport. “As a team I’m sure they are, Eddie’s an intelligent man.

“England – like the football team – have the weight of the world and expectation on their shoulders when they take the field, so it’s difficult to be critical of these guys.

“He’s been employed to do a job and the team aren’t functioning as we would all like at the moment, but he’s an intelligent coach who will go away and look at those reasons.”

Eddie Jones on why England’s latest run of losses will help shape them into a winning team: https://t.co/rqU3GSOM7r pic.twitter.com/O2pE2RtPOp

— England Rugby (@EnglandRugby) June 19, 2018

One area Moody feels Jones should have done better was during England’s internationals against Argentina, Australia and Samoa in November.

Rather than mixing up his selection Jones opted to keep faith with the players who had served him so well, but Moody believes that was a wasted opportunity.

“I think maybe where they fell down was not giving the opportunity they normally would in the Autumn series,” he added. “Normally they use that to see what talent is out there, but we didn’t see that.

“Instead we saw the same team time and time again. And eventually teams are going to get wise to it, and at the minute England are in a tough place. 

“But I do think the amount of work these players have had to go through, you can see emotionally they are at the end of their tether and are desperate for a break.

“The success from this tour [of South Africa] for me, would be having the opportunity to blood players they’ve not had a great deal of opportunity to see.

“Because going into a World Cup you need to know who you can depend on.”

Lewis Moody is a Land Rover ambassador. Land Rover has a heritage in rugby at all levels; from grassroots to elite. Follow @LandRoverRugby

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