Wood: The world wants to take our scalps now

TOM Wood last night warned his England team-mates they must now cope with being ‘a prized scalp’ in world rugby if they are to fulfil their dream of toppling the All Blacks.

The Northampton flanker claimed the men in white have to avoid complacency if they are to fulfil the dream of being as invincible as the world champions.

Having smashed Australia 37-21, and made it win number 14 in a row, England now know that another Grand Slam in 2017, would see them overtake the All Blacks record of 18 successive victories. They could do so in Dublin on March 18.

Eddie Jones had the last laugh on bitter rival Michael Cheika and went off to celebrate equalling the 2003 England side’s winning sequence, but Wood insists the New Year will see him and his colleagues under even more pressure from rivals aiming to upset them.

He claimed: “The more you win, the more successful you are, the bigger scalp you become. The more teams raise their games for you and the more you become a target.

“Once you put yourselves on a pedestal you are there to be knocked off. So it’s important not to get carried away by what you have

done so far but constantly keep looking ahead and trying to get better.

“That’s what the All Blacks have done for so long and why I have always had so much respect and admiration for those guys.

“It’s one thing to win big games. It’s another to win here and there. But to back it up week after week and look invincible no matter who the opponent or what the opposition do, is the secret. Every team throws everything at them but there is always an inevitability that the All Blacks are going to win it. That’s where we have to get.”

Jones was the only happy Australian inside Twickenham Stadium as his team followed up his war of scrummaging words with Cheika by winning the real fierce battle on the field.

Captain Dylan Hartley was all smiles as lifted the Cook Cup to huge cheers from a packed Twickenham after a fourth successive defeat of Australia following that magnificent series win down under last June.

For Jones the Tasmanian, it was the ideal way to go off to celebrate Christmas back home, and to ensure that his golden England year continued into 2017.

But Jones again refused to get over excited by the win and insisted England’s World Cup winning side were still a better one than his current team.

He claimed: “I was really pleased with our composure, our resilience, our ability to adapt today. It’s a good step forward for us. But we can’t get too carried away.

“We’re only the number two team in the world and we want to be number one. And we’re hellbent on achieving that.

“We were just scatty for some reason in the first half. It reminded me a little bit of the Six Nations Grand Slam game last year. And maybe it was nerves.

“This was just another Test match but to beat the third ranked country in the world 4-0 is fantastic.”

Wallabies head coach Michael Cheika admitted: “With their ranking of No2 in the world they are probably the premier team right now. They collected their points well and took their tries well.”