GREEN DAY’S hit record ‘Basket Case’ was blasted out over the Stade de France speakers at half time.
And it was a completely fitting tribute to Eddie Jones’ Red Rose robots.
It’s all getting a bit ‘Spursy’ at Twickenham as England lost two away games in the Six Nations for the first time since 2009.
With Ireland smashing Scotland, the task was simple – score four tries and bring home a bonus-point win.
The race was on, but England couldn’t find the keys to start the car as they were French fried.
In fact, the car had no wheels or an engine anyway. Oh, and it’s also stuck in reverse.
It took 74 minutes for Jonny May to score England’s only try – even if they were still playing today, they might not have scored any more.
Jones said super Maro Itoje was suffering from “second-season syndrome” in the week – but so is he. The honeymoon is over and after going stale major changes are needed.
It’s time to pick the best players for the job.
This team selection was one game too late with the likes of Dylan Hartley and Mike Brown finally dropped due to injury and form.
The damage for this tournament was done in Scotland when they tossed away the Calcutta Cup.
This year was supposed to be all about making history and becoming the first nation to secure a hast-trick of Six Nations titles.
The plan was for England to cement their status as the second-best side in the world and create a gap between themselves and their European rivals.
Instead of sending shockwaves through world rugby, they have opened the door to the chasing pack lead by Joe Schmidt’s Ireland.
Their tag as the second-best side in the world is under serious threat because they don’t have the ability to create chaos and havoc against a side who had won just ONCE in the previous 11 months before kick-off.
That was against Italy. ITALY! European rugby’s whipping boys.
The Six Nations trophy was on display at the side of pitch as the teams ran out of the tunnel and England should have said goodbye to it there and then.
In fact tournament organisers should have been shipping it to Dublin already as Ireland had one hand on the crown before a ball had been kicked.
And kicking is simply what England did wrong as well.
Debut captain Owen Farrell opted to knock over two early penalties instead of pinning France deep into their 22 and stretching their shocking line-out.
The early battles were dominated by England. Well, in terms of possession they were, but too often their attack went side-to-side through phase after phase as it lacked the bite and creativity to hurt the French.
It’s a sorry state of affairs when the only creative thing England put on the park in the first 40 minutes was a Ben Te’o goose-step.
It’s 26 years since England have scored four tries in Paris against Les Bleus and it never looked like changing as they coughed up eight penalties in the first 35 minutes.
France general Maxime Machenaud booted three of them to match Farrel’s two and a long-ranger from Elliot Daly.
Then in the second half, the game really came alive as England’s hopes died.
Anthony Watson was sinbinned for a high-tackle on Benjamin Fall on the line and ref Jaco Peyper gave a penalty try.
There could be no complaints.
Still England could not sniff out a way to the try line as Jacques Brunel’s side showed them how to do it – this is a side in utter disarray too.
England’s regular skipper Hartley was prowling the pitch during the warm-ups, studying France’s routines like a hawk and feeding messages back to Red Rose No2 Steve Borthwick.
But did they take their eye off the ball? The lack of awareness about the need to grab the game by the neck ands go for the maximum points was simply staggering.
This was the ultimate game of knock-out rugby and England completely ballsed it up.
Te’o couldn’t get firing through the middle to unleash the rapid back three of May, Watson and Daly.
The breakdown was again a mess – Courtney Lawes was hammered off on one occasion as Jones’ jokers failed to put stop this latest French revolution.
After his previous two defeats in 26 Tests, Jones blamed himself.
Well, Eddie, this mess is all your fault too.
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