Rugby World Cup 2019: England boss Jones offers ‘not a lot of sympathy’ to Australia

England boss Eddie Jones offered no sympathy to Australia after his team swamped the Wallabies at the Rugby World Cup.

A thumping 40-16 victory in Oita carried England through to the semi-finals, with Australian Jones the unabashed architect.

As his counterpart Michael Cheika just about held back tears, telling one journalist to show some “compassion” when raising the question of his future, Jones was jubilant after his own team’s performance.

But when it came to sympathising with his former Randwick team-mate, there was nothing going.

“Look, it’s tough when you lose a game, particularly at this level of a World Cup,” Jones said in a post-match news conference.

“At this moment, not a lot of sympathy, no, because I’m enjoying the win and I think I’m allowed to enjoy the win.

“Maybe later in the week I might, so ask me that later in the week.”

England will be deep in preparation for their semi-final task by then, and the impressive performance in their first match of the knock-out stage will count for very little.

They must not merely reprise the display that ripped Cheika’s side apart but take it to the next level, Jones said.

“We just want to keep challenging ourselves. We haven’t played at our best yet,” Jones said.

“The challenge is: how do we get better next week?”

“The good news for us is we can still improve”@EnglandRugby coach Eddie Jones thinks his side can still improve after their 40-16 victory over Australia in the #RWC2019 quarter-finals.#ENGvAUS #RWCOita pic.twitter.com/0Lg1sQ7kkS

— Rugby World Cup (@rugbyworldcup) October 19, 2019

He said England would expect “probably the toughest game of the tournament” next and predicted a “twinge” that led two-try Jonny May to come off late in the Australia game will not keep him sidelined.

Jones described Kyle Sinckler as “like a runaway rhino” after his charge to the line for England’s third try, and said George Ford was “absolutely spectacular” after coming off the bench in the second half, having been surprisingly left out of the starting line-up.

England’s coach was wary, though, of placing the team on too high a pedestal, even when touching on a favourite pet topic of samurai warriors.

“It’s a do-or-die game today. Everyone understands that, and the best samurais were always guys who had a plan but could adapt, who had a calm head, but they were full of aggression,” Jones said.

“I thought we were pretty much like that today.

“The challenge is always how we get better, because there’s always a better samurai around the corner, so we have to get better.”

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