All Blacks have flaws, says Jones
Outspoken England rugby coach Eddie Jones believes the All Blacks have ‘‘flaws and significant weaknesses’’ he intends to exploit.
While the rugby world marvels at New Zealand’s increasing dominance, Jones looks at the All Blacks from a different perspective and sees real hope for his resurgent team.
Jones wouldn’t specify the New Zealand team’s faults but vowed to expose those deficiencies in his attempt to dethrone the All Blacks at the 2019 World Cup in Japan.
‘‘We want to be the No1 team in the world. New Zealand are head of the pack but they have flaws in their game.
‘‘They’re a bloody good side but they’re beatable,’’ Jones told The Guardian.
‘‘You’ve got to take on their weaknesses … and they’ve got significant weaknesses. I’m not going to share them with you now; in 2018 I will.’’
The All Blacks and England aren’t scheduled to tangle until 2018.
Australian Jones led England to the Six Nations title and a 3-0 whitewash of the Wallabies. They have quickly risen to No 2 in the world rankings behind New Zealand.
But he concedes his team will need to be much better to get past the All Blacks who have taken their game to another level since winning back-to-back World Cups in London last year.
Jones spent some of the European summer following the Tour de France cycling extravaganza and has looked at how Great Britain put together such an impressive Olympics campaign in Rio.
Jones told that a three per cent improvement in all areas was usually enough to turn a good team into a great team capable of winning titles.
He challenged his players and coaching staff to achieve that.
‘‘When I am watching the players playing for their clubs I want to see a desire to play for England. We’re looking for players who have that desire.
‘‘I was not happy with our performance [in Australia] and the more I looked at it the less happy I was but I was really happy with our attitude in the third test,’’ Jones said.
‘‘Physically we had a number of players struggling with injury but mentally in that game we stayed strong.’’
"They've got significant weaknesses. I'm not going to share them with you now; in 2018 I will." Eddie Jones, above, on the All Blacks