BLOEMFONTEIN, South Africa — England coach Eddie Jones says he does not know what led to Ben Youngs snubbing a television interview after only one question following their 23-12 defeat at the hands of South Africa in Bloemfontein.
With the win, the Springboks clinched their three-Test home series against England with a match to spare, while also condemning the visitors to their sixth successive defeat.
Young, clearly upset following a match that had a lot of off-the-ball incidents and a few scuffles, answered one question during an interview with Sky Sports before storming off.
Jones said during the post-match press conference that he was not aware of the incident, but did admit that there may be some frustration creeping into the camp following their slump in 2018.
“I don’t know what happened mate, I’ll have to go back and take a look at it,” the 58-year-old Australian said.
“Definitely, [the players feel that they can do better]. That is the reality of life. Everyone is in this team because they want to win. They want to win for England and they want to keep the supporters happy.
“When you don’t win … we definitely have frustration and disappointment. It’s sometimes difficult to control. But I don’t know what happened with Bennie.”
Youngs used Twitter to apologise for the incident and to Gail Davis, who conducted the interview live for Sky Sports.
Just wanted to say sorry I walked off during my interview with Sky Sports. Obviously was very emotional and disappointed with result. Good to chat to Gail second time round just now. We go again in Cape Town. Thank you everyone 🌹
— Ben Youngs (@benyoungs09) June 16, 2018
Just as they had in the first Test last weekend, England relinquished an early lead in Bloemfontein. The touring team were 12-0 up after 13 minutes, but were kept scoreless for the rest of the Test by the Springboks.
There was a lot of pushing and shoving during the match, especially from the England team. It seemed like they wanted to impose themselves on some of the inexperienced Springbok players, while also targeting certain players such as scrumhalf Faf de Klerk.
“I think both teams wanted to win the game and England-South Africa will always be tough,” Jones said.
“I don’t think it was the case [that the England team focused on the off-the-ball stuff]. I thought the game was a good, tough, hard Test match.”
Jones called the Test “a bit of a horror show” and lamented England’s inability to handle the big moments and continued poor discipline.
It has become a bit of trend since they surrendered their Six Nations crown to Ireland earlier this year, suffering three defeats in the process. Jones, though, hopes they can put things right in Cape Town in the third Test on June 23, avoiding a series whitewash and getting back to their best form.
“It’s a tough period at the moment, ” Jones said. “Nobody wants to lose five Tests in a row. We have been through an exceptional period and now we are going through this tough period.
“Players are putting in plenty of effort and coaches are putting in plenty of effort. For some reason we are just not handling those key moments in the game well.
“This team has got a lot of pride. We have won back-to-back Six Nations [in 2016 and 2017], equalled the world record for the most successive [Tier 1] Test wins and beat Australia 3-0 [during June 2016]. Now we are going through this bloody tough period.
“We have got plenty of pride and everybody is going to fight hard to get out of this. You’ll see a spirited performance in Cape Town.”