England Rugby head coach Eddie Jones has criticised the media for being negative, after questions were raised about fly-half George Fords performance in the wake of Englands 27-13 win over Wales at Twickenham.
England warmed up for their summer tour of Australia by scoring five tries against Warren Gatlands men, but Ford converted only one of these as he missed six of his seven kicks at goal.
After questions were asked about Fords performance in the post-match press conference, Jones argued that the media were missing the bigger picture.
The thing that strikes me about this press conference is that weve just beaten Wales five tries to one and were talking about a guy who cant kick a few goals. Its quite amazing and it just shows the negative reaction in English rugby. Its quite sad, I find it quite sad to be honest, he said.
Weve beaten Wales five tries to one. When do you score five tries against Wales? Wales are at literally full strength. Were missing 11 players. And were talking about a young kid who misses a few kicks. I think we need to get some perspective on the game here, added Jones.
Jones continued to praise Fords performance in the match, saying that his kicking performance was just a bad day at the office. I thought he was brilliant, I thought he was really good. Ive seen Tiger Woods miss putts, Ive seen Michael Jordan miss jump shots. Everyone has a bad day. He had a bad day kicking. I thought the rest of his play was brilliant, he said.
The 23-year-old Bath No 10 was on kicking duties because of Saracens star Owen Farrells absence. Fly-half Farrell was unavailable to face Wales because he featured in his clubs Premiership final win over Exeter on Saturday.
England fly out to Australia on 31 May with Eddie Jones unbeaten since replacing Stuart Lancaster as head coach. They will first play Australia, who beat England on their way to finish runners-up at the World Cup last year, on 11 June.
