Eddie Jones: No regrets over replacing Marcus Smith in Calcutta Cup defeat

Eddie Jones insists he has no regrets over the decision to replace Marcus Smith with George Ford in England’s Calcutta Cup defeat by Scotland.

Jones says he relies on “gut feel” rather than data or a pre-planned strategy when it comes to making changes as he continues to face criticism for Smith’s early exit from the 20-17 Guinness Six Nations loss at Murrayfield.

The fly-half was removed in the 63rd minute, fresh from scoring a dynamic try and landing a penalty as part of accounting for England’s entire score, only for a mismanaged final quarter to surrender a seven-point lead.

Hooker Luke Cowan-Dickie conceded a penalty try and was sin-binned as part of the implosion, but it is the withdrawal of Smith that has provoked the greatest debate.

Sir Clive Woodward and Danny Cipriani view it as a blunder, while Tabai Matson – Smith’s Harlequins boss – felt it was pre-meditated.

Jones is still satisfied with the call he made, however, and said: “I’m in charge of it so my opinion is the only one that counts. We have a plan, like very coach does, but we adjust it to what is happening in the game.

“Everybody has got a judgement but I’ve been a television commentator and I was the smartest coach in the world, I got everything right. And it’s easy with the hindsight of replays to get everything right.

“I don’t have any regrets about what happened on Saturday in terms of the replacements we made.

“There were a number of circumstances that happened… as you know, we got a yellow card which upset the apple cart a little bit and which we weren’t planning on.

“The big thing for me is that we have got a squad of 23 and we want to maximise the squad of 23. How much time a replacement gets depends on the performance of the starting guy and