‘Only have ourselves to blame’ – Eddie Jones pinpoints reason for England’s defeat to Scotland

Eddie Jones insisted England only had themselves to blame for not being clinical enough in their Six Nations defeat to Scotland.

Scotland’s 20-17 win ensured the home side secured successive Calcutta Cup victories for the first time since 1984.

England led going into the final quarter thanks to a 17-point haul from Marcus Smith but a dramatic ending saw hooker Luke Cowan-Dickie yellow carded, and the Scots were awarded a penalty try.

Jones was pleased with how his side dominated possession at Murrayfield but pinpointed his team as not being ruthless enough when it mattered most to see out the game.

‘I think we had opportunities in that second half to kick on a little but we just were not clinical enough,’ he said. ‘We only have ourselves to blame. We were not clinical enough today, but we will be next weekend.

‘We’re massively disappointed we lost, Scotland deserved to win, but I think we dominated a lot of the game.

‘We just didn’t get the points out of the domination, and rugby is a simple game, when you dominate you need to get points and you need to get ahead of the opposition at the end.

‘It’s tough for us to start the tournament like that but I thought we played with a lot of purpose, drive and determination and we will go on to Italy next week and be even better.

‘It was a good effort from our team, Scotland were a bit better than us and took their chances, there was nothing in the game, it was a three point game that could have gone either way, but congratulations to Scotland they deserve their victory.’

Unsurprisingly, there were jubilant scenes at full-time inside Murrayfield and Scotland captain Stuart Hogg was delighted with the performance his team put on for their fans.

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