England vs Scotland: Eddie Jones concerned by ‘recurring theme’ after losing 31-point lead to draw Calcutta Cup as Owen Farrell blames himself

Head coach believes his side have not yet learned how to close out matches as captain Owen Farrell blamed himself for allowing Scotland back into the match at 31-0 down

Eddie Jones admitted that England have a “recurring” problem after seeing their 31-point lead overturned in the most dramatic of circumstances during Saturday’s thrilling 38-38 draw with Scotland.

England were 31-0 to the good with just 30 minutes on the clock, blowing an off-colour Scotland side off the Twickenham pitch to help forget the fact that Wales were kicking off their Grand Slam celebrations in Cardiff thanks to the dominant 25-7 victory over Ireland.

But what followed was an unbelievable fightback as Scotland not only drew level with five tries inside 25 minutes, but took the lead through Sam Johnson’s brilliant score five minutes from time.

Replacement fly-half George Ford, sent on for Farrell in a rare substitution for the captain, slaved the draw with a last-gasp converted try, but the disappointment and shock with England’s capitulation was evident everywhere you looked.

“It’s a bit of a recurring theme for us,” said Jones. “We’ve experienced this at least three times in 12 months, where we’ve taken control of a game, let our foot off the gas and then been unable to get control of it back. Our first half there was some exceptional rugby. We should’ve been ahead by a lot more. We came in at half-time determined to play a bit tighter and with a bit more discipline, but we failed to do that.

“It’s never one thing. It’s always a combination of things. Just lacking that discipline to do the simple things over and over again. We got seduced by the scoreboard. And sometimes it can be one player that does it and then it becomes infections. There’s not one area we need to fix, apart from our ability just to be able to regain ourselves.

“We’ve got good time before the World Cup. These are possibly things the team’s had for a long time, even before I’ve had them. We need to make sure we get the right people in to help us and we’ll sort it out.

“It was 100 per cent mental. There’s no physical difference out there at all. It’s 100 per cent the way you think, and we’ll get that right.”

Jones was sitting next to a dejected Owen Farrell, who endured one of his most difficult days at Twickenham. The fly-half was charged down for Stuart McInally’s first-half try that triggered the fightback – not to mention being outpaced by the hooker – and intercepted by Finn Russell’s second-half effort that brought the scores level 20 minutes from time, and his self-analysis left little to the imagination of who he was blaming.

“Obviously (it was) not great,” Farrell said. “We probably gifted them the momentum swing, me more than anyone. And then it was tough to get back. We talked after the game about we should be in control of that more.

Eddie Jones believes England have a ‘recurring problem’ (Getty)

“I’d say it is definitely mental. We saw in the first 20 mins or so how good we were physically. I think when they did come back and got that momentum shift, it probably shocked us that bit too much. We talked about staying calm and sticking to the process and obviously it didn’t quite work out that way.”

Jones was at least able to take the positives out of England’s incredible start, which saw Jack Nowell, Tom Curry, Joe Launchbury and Jonny May all score before half-time, with Scotland’s fightback coming from McInally, Magnus Bradbury, Russell, Johnson and two tries from Darcy Graham.

“If you look at our tournament, apart from a poor 30 against Wales and a poor 40 against Scotland, we’ve had a pretty good tournament,” Jones reflected after what was England’s final competitive match before the Rugby World Cup begins in September. “We played with power and precision, scored tries in a variety of ways, either through attacking kicks, through set pieces, or some phase play. Apart from today, our defense has been improved. So relatively positive.”