Owen Farrell has admitted that England’s players weren’t always on the same page after his side fell to a shock defeat at the hands of Argentina.
Eddie Jones’ side got their Autumn Nations Series campaign off to a nightmare start, as Michael Cheika’s Argentina claimed their first victory against England in 13 years.
Argentina managed to score 30 points despite having just 37 per cent of possession and 27 per cent of territory, as two quick-fire tries and the boot of Emiliano Boffelli led Los Pumas to a famous win at Twickenham Stadium.
England captain Owen Farrell was speaking to Amazon Prime Video after the game and acknowledged that his side were well below their best.
Owen Farrell on England’s loss to Argentina.
“We’ve got a long way to go this autumn and we need to make sure that we don’t drop any confidence because of this. We don’t start again, we’re building on top of it. We’ve just got to look a bit deeper,” Farrell said.
“There were obviously scrappy parts of the game, which obviously we’ll get better as we go along. But there were also avoidable [errors] of discipline and we need to make sure that we address it properly.
“We let the pressure off a lot of times. We played the game we thought we needed. It was a wet day, regardless of whether it was raining or not, it’s been raining all day. It’s a wet pitch and as you saw, both teams didn’t really move the ball that well.
“We weren’t at our best, definitely not. That’s what we’re here to do; get the best out of ourselves. We’ll have to look at how we can do that.
“There were some good bits, and it felt like it was coming. I just think a bit of [poor] discipline and errors of not quite being on the same page at times cost us that extra bit of momentum to get ourselves in front and stay in front.”
¡VAMOS PUMAS!
A significant win for Argentina at Twickenham 🇦🇷 #ENGvARG | #AutumnNationsSeries pic.twitter.com/vxTgnO66UJ
— Autumn Nations Series (@autumnnations) November 6, 2022
Patchy English form continues.
England bounced back from another disappointing Six Nations campaign to claim a test series victory against Australia in July, although they took another step backwards today.
Discipline was a major issue for England today, which was ruthlessly punished by Boffelli, although their bluntness in attack will also require plenty of inspection in the coming days.
Jones’ side have a good opportunity to get their confidence back when they face Japan next weekend, ahead of further games against New Zealand and South Africa this November, although the Brave Blossoms certainly aren’t to be taken for granted.
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