Eddie Jones leaps to Ford's defence

6:04 PM GMT

Eddie Jones turned on George Ford's critics and backed the England fly-half to recover from the jeering that greeted his dismal kicking in a 27-13 victory over Wales.

Ford missed six of his seven shots at goal, comprising of four conversions and two penalties, and it was not until the 48th minute that he was able to make his mark on the scoreboard despite a succession of easy attempts.

As the misses piled up, a sold-out 80,000 crowd at Twickenham responded with boos and it was an ironic cheer that greeted his conversion of Jack Clifford's try.

Ford had been earmarked to start the first Test against Australia in a fortnight's time and in response to demand for Owen Farrell to be given the 10 jersey for the tour opener in Brisbane, Jones mounted a strong defence of the 23-year-old.

"That's not very nice is it? We have got to be careful of that in rugby," England head coach Jones said when asked about the jeering. "He's a tough boy. I'm not worried about him, he'll be fine. He's a fantastic rugby player. Everyone has experiences which aren't pleasant, but he will be fine.

"I have seen Tiger Woods miss putts, I have seem Michael Jordan miss jump shots, everyone has a bad day and he had a bad day kicking but I thought the rest of his play was brilliant. He knew when to run and he knew when to kick and he had a few dabs himself.

"We scored five tries, one was a bit how's your mother, and the other four were scored by backs. If you score four tries against Wales your stand-off is doing something right. The thing that strikes me is that we've just beaten Wales five tries to one and we're talking about a guy who can't kick a few goals.

"It's quite amazing and just shows the negative reaction in English rugby. It's quite sad....I find it quite sad to be honest. Wales are literally full strength, we're missing 11 players and we're talking about a young kid who misses some kicks. We need to get some perspective on where we're going in the game here."

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Eddie Jones leaps to Ford's defence