Of course people should be critical of Ford's goal kicking. It wasn't good enough.
But that's all that needs saying. Everyone has off days.
Instead people are ramping it up to be the major story. This is where Eddie's quotes come from, the interviewer having one swing at the question then having another when Eddie batted it away. And then it balloons into the whole chat about whether Ford's in good enough form, whether he's in the right mental place, flakey... and so on. Which is okay here, but once it goes into the media, its just counter-productive and starts to overshadow the good story. And that's something we've seen time and time again in this country in sport after sport.
Jimbo, as for your final point, my guess is Jones disagrees that Ford is a lesser attacking threat than Cipriani.
J'nuh - You can be guarded and celebrate the good times while they're here. They're not mutually exclusive. I'd agree with not judging - although I'm getting tempted to declare myself positive - but that doesn't change that the game went about as well as possible.
