Rugby World Cup 2019: Eddie Jones taunts Warren Gatland in response to final performance comment

Eddie Jones took a swipe at old rival Warren Gatland by wishing him the best for Wales’s third-placed play-off against New Zealand this Friday.

While England will be preparing for Saturday’s World Cup final against South Africa, Wales will be playing the All Blacks in the bronze final at Tokyo Stadium – a game which neither side wants to play in.

Gatland’s team fell agonisingly short against the Springboks on Sunday night in a 19-16 defeat that saw Wales suffer their third semi-final loss in three attempts, with South African fly-half Handre Pollard kicking 14 points to secure a repeat of the 2007 World Cup final.

Asked after whether South Africa had a chance against England given the impressive victory over the All Blacks, Gatland suggested that “sometimes teams play in semi-finals and don't always turn up for a final”, adding that it would be “interesting” to see how England fared in trying to produce another dominant performance for the third week running.

But England head coach Jones took a mischievous approach in responding to Gatland’s comment, saying: “Well, guys can you just send my best wishes to Warren and make sure he enjoys the third-fourth place play-off.”

Jones was sat in the crowd on Sunday alongside defence coach John Mitchell, Rugby Football Union chairman Andy Cosslett and chief executive Bill Sweeney to see their World Cup final opponents in what was an “arm wrestle” of a semi-final.

“It was a tough old game,” said Jones. “It was interesting: both the coaches and captains said they anticipated the game to be an arm wrestle and it was. It was a tough, exacting semi-final. That’s what you expect at the World cup. We are looking forward to playing against South Africa now.

“The only thing we are really worried about is how the Springboks turn up on Saturday. They won a tough semi-final and when you are in the final of a World Cup, you have done a lot of things right.

“They are a massively aggressive physical forward pack, they probably played their stronger team in the second half as opposed to the first. They are going to be a difficult side to beat. We are going to enjoy the preparations this week, getting ourselves right, we know a couple of areas that we think we can expose in them and we’ll make sure we are well-prepared in those areas.”

Jones saw enough from the Springboks to expect them to play a physically-dominant style that managed to constrict Wales from playing their expansive game, with scrum-half Faf de Klerk and Pollard kicking the ball almost as many times as they passed it.

But he did pay credit to the job head coach Rassie Erasmus has done to turn around the Springboks, having picked them up off the floor 18 months ago after replacing Allister Coetzee.

“Rassie is a cunning coach, good coach and has done a great job with the Springboks,” added the England coach. “We’re prepared for the unexpected. They can play in different ways. You saw Faf de Klerk do 15-20 box kicks in the game but we know Pollard is an excellent kicker. The way he goal-kicked as fantastic. He was smooth, nice touch on the ball and that is a wonderful advantage for them.

“So we know they can play differently and we’re aware of that but we also know that they are going to come through the front door. There are not many Springbok teams that don’t come through the front door. We’ve got to be ready at the front door and have enough cover at the back door too.”