Modern Test rugby is almost entirely about outcome, particularly when England and Wales share the same rugby field. Not since the championship was expanded to six teams, for a start, have England registered fewer points at home and still won the game. Nine times out of 10 Scott Williams would also have fancied diving beyond Underhill to score in the final quarter. Very often at the highest level it is the unsexy bits of play – the aerial contest, kick chase, restarts, defensive line speed – that settle big contests and Jones’s England are increasingly sound in all those areas. Like all top sides they also hate losing so intensely that, after a while, it becomes a self fulfilling prophecy.

Source: The Irish Times February 11, 2018 22:52 UTC