Wounded England will be looking to bounce back from last Sunday’s defeat against Argentina when they take on a Japanese outfit that will still be on a high after running New Zealand close at the close of October.
England 1/25 | Japan 7/1
Handicap
England (-81.5) 11/10 | Japan (+18.5) 87/100
The pitchforks are back out for Eddie Jones with the England mentor slated in the press this week after his side went down 29-30 to Los Pumas at Rugby HQ last Saturday.
This has to be one of the biggest blotches on Jones’ esteemed CV, especially considering his opposite number, Michael Cheika is an old rival with the two facing each other back in the days of Super Rugby. While the two are good mates off the field, you can bet this defeat will have hurt Jones big time.
“It comes down to me!” ✅
— talkSPORT (@talkSPORT) November 9, 2022
“I didn’t coach well enough. This week we will play a lot better than last week.” 🏴
Eddie Jones takes full responsibility for England’s surprise defeat to Argentina. pic.twitter.com/VryBY6TVMv
So what went wrong for England? Well, they were pretty sloppy with ball in hand and nowhere near clinical enough, spurning multiple points-scoring opportunities. Billy Vunipola was guilty of several handling errors, and one has to wonder if he should be going to the World Cup next year.
While the defeat will have hurt, the big worry for Jones will be just how ineffective England’s midfield of Marcus Smith, Owen Farrell and Manu Tuilagi were. Fair enough, the weather was not great with loads of rain falling before kick-off, but you’d still expect more from a midfield featuring these three.
Instead, Marcus Smith’s first five touches read like this; kick, kick, kick, kick, pass to Farell who then kicks. Pretty uninspiring stuff and it will need to improve if England are not to endure a poor end to a rather topsy-turvy year.
While England will be somewhat low on morale, Japan will head for London in a buoyant mood having run a slightly understrength All Black side close in their last outing. The Japanese were brilliant in their 31-38 defeat to the New Zealanders, and had the game gone on for longer then they may well have registered a win. They will be a massive threat to England this weekend.
While I can’t see Japan taking the spoils, I can see the Asians running England pretty close – much closer than the 18.5 handicap. Get on the Japanese plus here.
