Eddie Jones focuses on France’s flaws despite England cracks widening

With the final weekend of the 2022 Six Nations looming and England struggling to avoid finishing in the bottom half of the table, you can only marvel at Eddie Jones’s relentless chutzpah. In the head coach’s view it is grand slam-chasing France who have most to ponder currently, with his side intent on exploiting the “chinks” in their hosts’ armour in Paris on Saturday.

Given England lost the try count 4-0 against Ireland last weekend and were beaten at Twickenham by a record margin under Jones, the truth is that far wider cracks are threatening to open up closer to home. As so often, though, Jones is much keener to discuss potential opposition frailties than to consider the implications of another heavy England defeat.

The problem is that almost no one is buying his calculated dummies nowadays. If the valour and spirit shown by a 14-man England in losing to Ireland was admirable, it is the outcome and shape of Saturday’s game that will ultimately determine whether or not Jones is merely whistling in the wind.

The 62-year-old has at least been around the block frequently enough in both hemispheres to know that agreeing to serve a second World Cup cycle, having not won in 2019, was always an all-or-nothing assignment. “The longer you’re in the job, the more people probably don’t want you to be in the job,” he told BBC 5 Live. “I don’t think it helps being an Australian but that’s part of the deal. When I decided to do another cycle, I knew that would be more intense.”

Most England fans would counter that Jones’s nationality matters less than his continuing ability to assemble a team that makes its most striking statements on the field.

Having scored only two tries in three games against Scotland, Wales and Ireland, there