We’re not there yet - Jones on England
England have equalled an All Blacks world record but coach Eddie Jones says his side aren’t the equal of the All Blacks yet.
England’s crushing 61-21 Six Nations win over Scotland saw them match the All Blacks’ record of 18 consecutive tier one test wins.
They head to Dublin next weekend to try to claim the record for themselves. They have won backto-back Six Nations title and another Grand Slam beckons as well. These are lofty times.
Outspoken Australian Jones, who hasn’t lost a game since taking charge of England in the wake of their dreadful 2015 World Cup campaign, is delighted with his side but also keen to put some perspective on things.
England are No 2 to New Zealand on the world rankings by a good margin and he continues to use the All Blacks as his yardstick.
‘‘We are not the No 1 team in the world — you have just got to look at the rankings. We are No 2 and there is a gap between us and the No 1 team,’’ Jones said in a Sunday Times article in the washup to the demolition job of Scotland.
‘‘We are not beating our chest and saying we are the No 1 team in the world but we aspire to be the No 1 team in the world.
‘‘We are only one year into a four-year project, the players are learning new ways and we are only going to get better.
‘‘Next weekend is about the Grand Slam and we are going to focus on that target. At halftime we said we had to behave like the No 1 team in the world. The No1 team in the world goes on and finishes that off.’’
Jones felt greatness was beckoning for his side. ‘‘This has put us in a very good position and we can go to Ireland and win the Grand Slam, and no team in the history of the Six Nation has won back-toback Slams.
‘‘It has only been done five times in Four and Five Nations history and it is a fantastic opportunity.
‘‘Back-to-back Grand Slams for the players will mean that they achieve greatness, and how many times in your life do you get the chance to be great.’’
But Jones, a master of the mind games, was equally quick to hand Joe Schmidt’s Ireland an advantage.
‘‘Ireland, psychologically, are in a very strong position,’’ he said.
‘‘They are out of the tournament, they love spoiling parties and the party they would love to spoil most is the England party. They have got an enormous amount of psychological advantage.
‘‘We are vulnerable because we have won, we are champions of the Six Nations. We are in the most vulnerable state and we are going to have to work hard to get ourselves right for the game. And we will work hard and we will be right.’’
England are not due to play the All Blacks until next year, a year out from the 2019 World Cup in Japan.