Eddie Jones gets vote of confidence AHEAD of RFU review as England flop again

When the last firework exploded in the Paris night sky England found themselves in the dark fumbling for answers.

It was a familiar position for rugby’s richest rugby nation - another defeat, another disastrous Six Nations.

Rugby Football Union chiefs quickly launched their latest review into what had not gone right and Eddie Jones even admitted he had not done a good enough job.

But when it came to the nitty gritty of what on earth is happening with an attack branded “clunky” by Ben Youngs and “embarrassing” by World Cup winner Kyran Bracken, Jones doubled down.

“The improvement in our attack has been very good,” England’s head coach said. “The only thing we have not been able to do is to finish.”

His team had just lost more games than it won for a third Six Nations campaign in five years.

It had scored fewer tries than any opponent other than Italy and gone an entire championship at home without making a scoring pass.

Yet Jones’ verdict was that he has “never” been as excited about the prospects of this team.

“There is about probably a three per cent gap between where we are and where we need to be,” he said. “Much more positive for England than 12 months ago.”

True, last year was even more forgettable, with England finishing fifth of six and losing to every Home Union in one campaign for the first time since 1976.

But that is such a low bar that they can’t seriously find positives in trailing in 15 points behind France, 11 back of Ireland.

The response of RFU chiefs to England’s worst ever Six Nations showing a year ago was to launch a “transparent” inquiry which revealed nothing and certainly did not clip the coach’s wings.

So Jones is unlikely to lose either sleep or his job this time around.

“I think the progress