England’s players have held a meeting to discuss their on-field discipline and vowed to clean up their act in the second Test against South Africa on Saturday.
After four successive Test defeats the squad have acknowledged they urgently need to reduce their penalty count if South Africa are not to take an unassailable 2-0 lead in the series.
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The defeat in Johannesburg last Saturday has left England little margin for error and, with Joe Launchbury still struggling for full fitness, the wing Jonny May accepts the pressure is mounting.
“We should have realised by now the impact one penalty has on the momentum of a game, let alone back‑to‑back penalties,” he said. “In the Six Nations it killed us and it was as bad as ever at the weekend.
“We have spoken as a group because we’re desperate to be the best. One penalty can really get a team going. It’s such a frustrating one because we don’t want to be giving away penalties. We know better than that. But at the moment hands up, it’s on us, because it’s not good enough. You might think it’s just a silly penalty but it can change the game.
“I don’t really think about losing five in a row. I’m sure the other boys are like that as well. But we know what is at stake. We want to win the series and the pressure is on us but we have to make sure we don’t turn too desperate because it will lead to people trying too hard. Maybe that’s what we’re doing: forcing it a bit too much.
“The things that are making us come unstuck are things that we can fix ourselves.”
Eddie Jones will confirm England’s second Test lineup for Bloemfontein on Thursday – the hooker Luke Cowan-Dickie’s sore hamstring on the mend – and the players are keen to replicate the form they showed in the first 20 minutes at Ellis Park.
“We almost shocked ourselves with how good we were in that first 20 minutes,” May said. “Eddie said that is the best he has seen us play and he has been around a lot. We felt we never should have lost that game.”