All Blacks are there for the taking – Jones

ENGLAND ....................... 52 JAPAN ............................. 13

EDDIE Jones declared England are ready to take on New Zealand after Japan were swept aside to revive an autumn that had opened with a shock defeat by Argentina, writes Duncan Bech.

England plundered seven tries to warm-up for the main event of the month against the All Blacks with a heavily-improved display, albeit against a disappointing Brave Blossoms.

A thumping semi-final victory over New Zealand at the 2019 World Cup is the highlight of Jones’ seven years in charge and he insists defeating them again is not “mission impossible”.

“It’s an opportunity to play against one of the giants of world rugby. For an England player it’s a massive opportunity,” the head coach said.

“If you look at the history of the sport, the game’s been going for 150 years and England have won 19 per cent of their Tests against New Zealand.

“There’s a narrative that says England can’t beat New Zealand, but in 2019 we showed that if you’ve got the right attitude and the right game plan then history can be broken. We’re looking forward to the opportunity to break history again.

“They’re playing a slightly different style of game to what they used to, but guys who played in that game – Owen Farrell, Mako Vunipola, Billy Vunipola, Maro Itoje, Jamie George – are going to be crucial in reinforcing to the players that it’s not mission impossible.

“If we go after them then they’re there for the taking – and we’re going to go after them.”

England were in control from start to finish, and Jones added: “It’s an improvement. As we said at the start of November, each game we want to get a little bit better and we were definitely better than the Argentina game.

“I thought we played with a lot of purpose and we knew exactly how we wanted to play.

“As I said in the round-up after Argentina, the fault that we didn’t play like that against Argentina was my poor coaching, so this week it is not my poor coaching. It’s a good play from the players.”

Marcus Smith and Guy Porter both scored two tries for England, while there were also touchdowns for Freddie Steward and Ellis Genge, with a penalty try as well. Owen Farrell kicked 15 points.