Honourable defeat could be turning point in Jones’s search for leadership

So it wasn’t one of the great victories. But it may just go down as one of the great defeats. The game should have been as good as over before it had even really started, cut short by a red card after Charlie Ewels’ reckless tackle on James Ryan.

The crowd didn’t like it, and booed long and loudly after Mathieu Raynal made the decision. But of course the referee was right. The fans’ frustration overwhelmed everything they’ve learned in the last few years about the long-term consequences of those kinds of collisions. But really, all that knowledge about the risks meant there was no room for forgiveness. Ewels had every opportunity to go lower. It was a dangerous mistake.

As the remaining England players pulled themselves into a huddle, the pressing question for them was what the hell they were going to do now, a man down and the whole game stretching ahead of them.

Some of it England had already planned for in training. Courtney Lawes moved up to lock and Jack Nowell, who Eddie Jones has always said (and only half joking) is capable of playing flanker, really did pack down there during the scrums. But the issue was bigger than which patterns they were going to switch to, who was going to play where, and how they were going to plug the gaps. The match had just become a test of their character, cohesion and leadership.

Which are issues Jones has been worrying over, and working on, for the last year and more, ever since the 2019 World Cup final against South Africa, when, thrown off by the early loss of Kyle Sinckler with a head injury, England crumbled under pressure from a side who were not just better than them, but who seemed to have a stronger sense of purpose and a greater strength of character, too. Jones has spent a