England boss Eddie Jones rounds on George Ford's boo-boys

30 May 2016 03:53

England head coach Eddie Jones has condemned the booing that greeted George Ford's wayward kicking in Sunday's 27-13 victory over Wales at Twickenham.

Ford missed six of his seven shots at goal, comprising of four conversions and two penalties, and it was not until the 48th minute that he was able to make his mark on the scoreboard despite a succession of easy attempts.

As the misses piled up, a sold-out 80,000 crowd at Twickenham responded with jeers and it was an ironic cheer that greeted his conversion of Jack Clifford's try and eventual substitution with five minutes remaining.

"That's not very nice is it? We have got to be careful of that in rugby," England head coach Jones said when asked about the booing.

"He's a tough boy. I'm not worried about him, he'll be fine. He's a fantastic rugby player. Everyone has experiences which aren't pleasant, but he will be fine."

Ford had been earmarked to start the first Test against Australia in a fortnight's time and in response to demand for Owen Farrell to be given the 10 jersey for the tour opener in Brisbane, Jones mounted a strong defence of the 23-year-old.

"I have seen Tiger Woods miss putts, I have seen Michael Jordan miss jump shots, everyone has a bad day and he had a bad day kicking but I thought the rest of his play was brilliant," Jones said.

"He knew when to run and he knew when to kick and he had a few dabs himself.

"We scored five tries, one was a bit how's your mother, and the other four were scored by backs. If you score four tries against Wales your stand-off is doing something right.

"The thing that strikes me is that we've just beaten Wales five tries to one and we're talking about a guy who can't kick a few goals.

"It's quite amazing and just shows the negative reaction in English rugby. It's quite sad? I find it quite sad to be honest.

"Wales are literally full strength, we're missing 11 players and we're talking about a young kid who misses some kicks. We need to get some perspective on where we're going in the game here."

England will name a replacement for the injured Manu Tuilagi on Monday morning with Luther Burrell doing his claim to being chosen ahead of Ollie Devoto no harm with a muscular first-half try.

Source: PA