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| - Eddie Jones was adamant he was still the right man to coach England after his reigning Six Nations champions ended the 2021 tournament in fifth place with a chastening 32-18 loss to Ireland in Dublin. Saturday's reverse was England's third defeat of a Six Nations that started with an 11-6 loss to Scotland -- the Scots' first win over their arch-rivals at Twickenham since 1983. England were also beaten 40-24 by Wales and this was the first time since the 1976 Five Nations they had lost to all three Celtic nations in the same Championship campaign. And it was the fourth occasion that England had lost three matches in a Six Nations, something that last happened under Jones in 2018. Last year Jones, who guided England to the 2019 World Cup final where they lost to South Africa, signed a new contract extension that is set to see him coach the side at the 2023 edition in France. "It was a difficult game for us," Jones said after Saturday's match. "But we still know where we are going." The veteran Australian coach, asked if he was still getting through to his players, replied: "Most definitely mate, I don't think that's the issue. "If I thought that was the issue I wouldn't be coaching the team." He added: "We are going through a transition period in the team. This is almost a natural time for that to happen, with two years before the World Cup. Those things will happen." Keith Earls and Jack Conan scored superb first-half tries for an Ireland side coached by Andy Farrell, the father of England captain Owen, with skipper Johnny Sexton kicking 22 points. England reduced the deficit through late tries from Ben Youngs and Jonny May after Ireland centre Bundee Aki's red card but it was too little, too late for the visitors. England, a week after their thrilling 23-20 win over France, were found overpowered up front in their first defeat by Ireland in five games. Jones, asked what had gone wrong, replied: "Just our consistency to apply pressure. "It was a different sort of game to the French game, which had a lot of ball movement. This was always going to be one of those tight and attritional games. "A couple of things went well and we allowed that to get to us and dropped our intensity off. Ireland took advantage of that, and established a winning lead...Congrats to Ireland they were too good for us on the day." jdg/jc
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