MAY’S DAY!
Jonny’s thrilling try sets up England to bury their Boks hoodoo, but coach warns: ‘We must improve’
EDDIE JONES believes England are ‘nowhere near good enough’, despite beating South Africa for the first time in ten years to go 11 consecutive Tests unbeaten.
The man who became the first England coach to win his first 10 Tests was unhappy with the attack in particular, even though his side scored four tries at Twickenham.
‘All in all we get a pass mark,’ he said. ‘We’re pleased with the result. Having not beaten South Africa for 10 years, to win by that scoreline today is fantastic.
‘But we’re certainly not satisfied with our performance. There are areas of our game that really need tidying up.
‘I thought some of our attack today was good and some was very poor. Defensively we gave away a soft try at the end, which was disappointing.
‘Basically, my job is to make myself redundant. When I’m redundant then the team’s going to be functioning well. We’ve got to get better. We’re nowhere near good enough at the moment.’
Nevertheless, Jones hailed Chris Robshaw and Tom Wood as ‘outstanding’ and was impressed with Elliot Daly on his first start, which included a monster penalty just before half-time which gave them an 11-point buffer at 20-9.
‘He did really well, Elliot,’ added Jones. ‘He’s a nice player. He’s got the ability at 13 to make outside breaks, which is enormously important. He’s got that educated left foot kick — you can tell he’s been to a public school, very educated. It gives you another attacking weapon.’
Jones revealed that he will make changes for the Fiji match next Saturday but said he would not be ‘randomly giving caps’ to those that did not start yesterday.
While his drive for perfection, and the pursuit of the world No1 slot continues in earnest, scrumhalf Ben Youngs said beating South Africa for the first time since 2006 has added to England’s aura.
The Leicester Tigers No 9 produced one of his finest afternoons in a white jersey, sniping twice around the fringes to put first George Ford and then Owen Farrell in for second-half tries.
And Youngs can feel this England squad building momentum with every victory.
‘South Africa are a huge rugby
nation and beating them will give this team another layer of confidence. ‘It is another step of building to where we want to get to,’ added Youngs. ‘That is No1 in the world, but to get there we need to control the ball better, have better discipline and put teams under more pressure. ‘There is a lot more to come from us and that is the over-riding feeling in the dressing room. We got the result and our campaign is under way with a win. We did leave some points out there and it could have been more, we had a couple of other chances to score, but I’ll take the win because I’ve never beaten South Africa before.’ Youngs extolled the virtues of head coach Jones, who is yet to lose as England boss. ‘Eddie has been brilliant at instilling team belief and a lot of self-belief and today was an example of how much I am enjoying my rugby,’ he added. South Africa head coach Allister Coetzee insisted his side’s rotten run — they lost four of their six Rugby Championship games this year — can be rectified with hard work. ‘There’s things we can fix. Things we need to fix quickly, too,’ he said. ‘It’s tough and you’ve got to hang in there. It’s never easy, you’ve got to keep working and focusing on the positive things. ‘We need to give England credit for playing the conditions well. The halfback pair (Youngs and Ford) were superb in terms of the kicking gameplan. It was matter of being patient, and they waited to pounce on our mistakes. We were right there for 30 minutes but we paid for unforced errors. The basics weren’t there for 80 minutes.’ The Springboks boss was adamant the aura surrounding the two-time world champions remains and that all that’s needed is one win, something he hopes will come against Italy in Florence next week. Coetzee added: ‘I always look to see if a team gives up, only then would I say the Springboks have lost their aura. ‘But there’s no lack of effort in this team. We just need to get a win. That’s the one important thing. You can work as hard as you want to, but to believe in structures and the team itself, you need to win.’