They have gussied up Twickenham, building a new swooping facade on the back of the old East Stand and a pair of wrought iron gates with the words to Jerusalem stencilled into them around the other side of the ground. It looks a little awkward, all these pretty little frills on those brutal old pressed concrete grandstands, with their exposed pipes and endless zigzag staircases; the stadium is an odd combination of ugly structures and fancy flourishes, as if it does not quite know what it is trying to be. At least it is finished, though, unlike the team who play there. Eddie Jones has got another 12 months to go, and there are a lot of nuts and bolts left to tighten yet.
‘Bring it on’: Eddie Jones ready for All Blacks after England win ‘arm wrestle’
There was a lot for England’s fans to love about the way their team played. They were gutsy enough to grind out a win, even though their attacking play was so mediocre it felt, at times, as if they had brought a spoon to a gunfight. “When you get in those arm-wrestles someone’s got to give,” Jones said, “and we didn’t give.” Hopefully the RFU kept the booze flowing in those new hospitality suites in the first 40 minutes, because some of the rugby England played in that first half felt pretty sobering. They were utterly outplayed, and did not even make it into the South Africa 22 before half‑time, never mind over their try-line.
The Springboks had two-thirds of the possession in that first half, and four-fifths of the territory. If Malcolm Marx had only been a little more accurate with his throwing-in at the lineouts, South Africa could well have built a lead that England would have struggled to overcome even after their play finally picked up after half-time. Instead, the Springboks were only 8-6 up. Now, that narrow gap was not only down to Marx’s mistakes. The one part of England’s game that was working for them was their defence, which held up brilliantly well under enormous pressure, especially in the 10-minute spell when Maro Itoje was in the sin-bin.
“It’s not always scoring points that wins you games,” said Dylan Hartley, “your defence can do it too.” And it is a good thing for England that this is the case. Because this was the first time they have failed to score a try in a home game at Twickenham since they beat Italy 18-11 way back in March 2013. Of course Jones has just moved away from the signature style he has used in the last two and a half years, with a second playmaker at inside-centre. The switch meant England were less threatening in attack. But it seemed to stiffen them up, too, because it allowed Owen Farrell to run the game from fly-half.
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It was only the third game Farrell has played there since Jones took charge. Jones says he made the change because he wants England to learn another way to play but it has surely got just as much to do with the fact that the team had suffered five defeats in six Tests. When the heavy pressure comes down, Farrell is the sort of bloke who takes the load for you. This seems, increasingly, to be Farrell’s team. He was the man who led them out of the tunnel, while Hartley, his co-captain, followed on behind. It was supposed to be Hartley’s job to do all the talking to the referee but there were plenty of times when Farrell could not help but come running up to have his say, too.
It was Farrell who kicked that last, match-winning, penalty after England had turned over the South Africa scrum, Farrell who stripped the ball off of Lood de Jager to win a crucial turnover in the final minutes as South Africa closed in on England’s line, and it was Farrell who killed the match when he damn near snapped André Esterhuizen in two with a ferocious tackle at the very end of the game. It was a blow everyone will remember apart from Esterhuizen, who likely cannot recall a single thing about it. Farrell was lucky to get away with it. But Angus Gardner, after consulting the television match official, Olly Hodges, declared that Farrell’s vague gesture towards wrapping his arm around Esterhuizen’s back meant it counted as a legal tackle.
On another day, or even at another moment of this same match, the decision might have gone another way and South Africa would have had a shot at a penalty kick to win it. So it goes. Farrell may well have to answer for it anyway if he gets cited, which would leave Jones with a hell of a headache when they play the All Blacks next Saturday. Because while Farrell has his limitations, his fortitude certainly is not one of them. And so long as he is at the heart of this team, it will be true of them, too. Whatever sort of side Jones is planning on building in the months he has left, no doubt Farrell will be the foundation it all rests on.