Owen Farrell ‘lost his edge’ against Scotland, admits England coach Eddie Jones

Eddie Jones believed that England captain Owen Farrell had “lost his edge” before replacing him in an effort to salvage Saturday’s dramatic Calcutta Cup clash against Scotland, as the Australian exited the Six Nations with more questions to answer than when the championship started.

Had England held on to their 31-0 advantage that they built inside 30 devastating and clinical minutes at Twickenham, Jones would have been able to rue a poor half an hour against Wales as the only reason why Warren Gatland’s secured the Grand Slam as opposed to his own.

But, instead, England squandered a record margin and needed a George Ford try, followed by his own conversion, to get the hosts “out of jail” and salvage a 38-38 draw. If this was an anomaly then Jones would’ve been forgiven for not hitting the panic alarm, but the matter of fact is that this is the third time in nine months that England have let what should be a match-winning advantage slip through their grasp.

For the first time since naming him captain last summer, Jones reacted to a testing situation by taking Farrell off. Ford was sent on to salvage the game, despite playing just 42 minutes of Six Nations rugby before Saturday, and the head coach admitted that he had seen a change in Farrell.

“Owen lost a bit of his edge,” said Jones. “He was just a little bit off his best and George Ford has been in exceptional form this week. We know George is an excellent player who can bring something different to the table, and we ended up getting a draw due to George’s brilliant play. The only thing I was pleased about in the second half was the response of our finishers, who got us out of a deep hole. They got us a draw in difficult circumstances in the end.

“We just needed a change, and we needed someone to change the momentum of the game. I thought Sladey (Henry Slade) and Manu (Tuilagi) both still had enough in them to keep on there, so it then became a decision on whether to replace Owen and we thought it was the best decision for the team at that stage.”

Farrell looked despondent after the match and openly blamed himself for allowing Scotland a path back into the contest when they should have been dead and buried. It was his cross-field kick that was charged down and run back for a try by Stuart McInally, and he was then intercepted by Finn Russell when trying to find George Kruis that again led to a seven-pointer for the visitors.

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“It’s always a team loss, you never lose because of one player,” Jones said in defending his talismanic fly-half. “He’s the hardest taskmaster in the world and he’ll be disappointed with his game.

“He’s a young captain and I think he’s developing really nicely. I’m very pleased with him. Like any young captain it takes time. You don’t put a C next to someone’s name and they learn every lesson on how to manage a game.”

Farrell has an immediate chance to bounce back on the big stage with Saracens taking on Harlequins in their London derby at the London Stadium next weekend, although the 27-year-old is likely to be given a rest after playing all five of England’s Six Nations matches.

And it would be a surprise for the strong-headed out-half to let one performance affect him mentally, though if he needed any words of comfort they came from his teammates.

“It’s definitely not Owen’s fault,” said Jack Nowell, one of England’s standout performance in the first-half rout as he scored the opening try inside 80 seconds. “There’s no way he should feel bad. Or get his head down because he’s been one of the front runners for us this Six Nations and he’s one of the ones we look up to.

“It’s about us just being tight as a squad and when we are under the posts it’s about us all sticking together; it’s no one’s fault. Everyone messed up at some point out there. We have to stick tight now, realising it’s nobody’s fault and going again.”