Eddie Jones already planning to give England's Grand Slammers a taste of his cane

England’s newly crowned Grand Slammers should enjoy the moment while they can, because the coach who helped them achieve their hearts’ desire is already in the process of forgetting. “I have the greatest cane in the world, because I pick the side,” said Eddie Jones. “If anyone gets too far ahead of himself, he won’t be in the team. That’s how you keep growing.”

The Australian’s next big task is to guide the Six Nations champions through a three-Test series in his homeland in June, and he sees the threat posed by the Wallabies as greater than anything on this side of the Equator. If beating the World Cup finalists requires some tough selection calls, he is more than happy to make them.

“This will be a weight off the players’ backs,” he said after Saturday’s win in France. “As much as we talk about being positive all the time, people will always have things in the back of their heads. If you win something, those things are pushed further back. There’s some confidence in this team now.

“But what we need is a few young guys to come through and really push the envelope. We need people to come in, say ‘This isn’t good enough’ and lift the level again. The England players who won the 2003 World Cup talk about Jonny Wilkinson arriving as a kid and turning up the Bunsen burner. I need to find a couple of those kids, so I might have to go outside the squad.

“I can say 100 per cent that no one from this team is guaranteed a place. They’ll have to yell at me to pick them, and if they do it consistently enough they’ll be selected. These players have a few bonus points, some more than others, but they have to stand out as international players to stay in the side.”