Rugby World Cup 2019: Eddie Jones brings England crashing down to earth with a dose of realism

Eddie Jones brought his England squad crashing back to earth in the wake of their historic victory over New Zealand by stressing they haven’t achieved anything yet.

England will face a repeat of the 2007 Rugby World Cup final in facing South Africa this Saturday, with the Springboks scrapping their way past Wales with a 19-16 victory in Yokohama.

Jones was part of that Springboks coaching set-up that triumphed over England 12 years ago, working under Jake White to triumph in France, and it will be the third time that one of Jones’s teams has made a World Cup final following his 2003 Australia side’s defeat against England.

It’s for that reason that Jones knows even the incredible 19-7 victory over the All Blacks will stand for nothing if England fail to beat South Africa this weekend.

“We had two-and-a-half years to prepare for this game,” Jones said. “The players weren’t consciously preparing for it, but sub-consciously we were garnering a game to play against New Zealand. It’s a good performance but we’ve got to play better next week.

“We want to be the best in the world and we’re not, so we’re not going to be satisfied until we’re the best in the world.

“It’s a mind-set, it’s the attitude of the players, the messaging the staff gives the players and the messaging the leadership gives the players. It’s about making sure no one gets too far ahead of themselves and this team has got no reason to, because we haven’t achieved what we want to achieve. All it’s done is give us another week in the competition.

“It won’t be normal because you have this (gestures to all media) and you’ll have people on the street patting you on the back and telling you how you’re good you’ve been. I’m sure the newspapers will be full of praise so you’ve got to work hard to keep yourself focused.”

England are almost certain to go into the final as favourites following their victory over the three-time world champions, with bookmakers already giving them a strong chance of reclaiming the Webb Ellis Cup for the first time in 16 years.

But South Africa are riding a wave of rejuvenation following the arrival of Rassie Erasmus last year, which preceded a series victory over England in the summer of 2018 that will help to fuel the Springboks squad this week in the most important of weeks.

“We’ve beaten them before, they’ve beaten us before,” said South Africa lock Lood de Jager. “It’s going to be tight. We have a foot in the door and that’s the most important thing. These are the biggest games of your life.

“It’s going to be very physical. The only way we know is fighting fire with fire. We base our game on physicality and they’re a very physical side at the moment. Its going to be the team that dominates the gain line that wins the game.

“South Africa’s a tough place to grow up. You need to bring that out. We don’t psyche each other up and bang our heads against the wall. It’s tough growing up in South Africa and you have to bring that out when you’re on the pitch. There’s a lot of stuff. It’s dangerous. It’s a lovely country and I love it but it’s a tough place to grow up. Our captain grew up in a township. Go there and see for yourself. A lot of people grew up in tough places and rural places and they need to bring that out.”

England will enjoy a second day off on Monday before returning to training and building up to the biggest game in the country’s rugby history in 16 years, though they already have a slight advantage with an extra day to prepare when compared to South Africa.

But despite the obvious success that they enjoyed at the weekend, Jones could yet make changes to his side. The Australian has already called Saracens scrum-half Ben Spencer up to replace the injured Willi Heinz, who has dropped out of the 31-man squad with a hamstring injury but will remain with the squad for the rest of the week, while England are monitoring how Owen Farrell, Jonny May, Anthony Watson and Kyle Sinckler recover from knocks. Yet Jones could look to make further changes regardless of how Saturday’s starting XV come through the start of the week, with the prospect of dropping George Ford back to the bench a genuine possibility given the physical pressure that South Africa will bring particularly through centre Damian de Allende, even though Farrell made 15 tackles – the second most of any England player – with Ford chipping in with 13.

“They defended well but next week is another situation,” Jones added. “We’ll look at how we need to play and what the opposition are going to bring to the party and then we’ll decide on selection.”