Rugby World Cup 2019: Jones demands more from England after dethroning ‘god of rugby’

Eddie Jones said England will have to take their game to another level in the Rugby World Cup final after dethroning “god of rugby” New Zealand.

England ended a seven-year wait for a victory over the All Blacks and beat them for the first time in a World Cup match with a dominant performance in Yokohama on Saturday.

Manu Tuilagi’s try inside two minutes set the tone and George Ford kicked 12 points as England set up a showdown with South Africa or Wales at the same venue next Saturday with a 19-7 triumph.

Sam Underhill and Ben Youngs had scores disallowed in a relentless display from the Red Rose, who denied New Zealand an unprecedented third consecutive World Cup triumph and replaced them at the top of the rankings.

England head coach Jones says his side must raise their standards even higher if they are to get their hands on the Webb Ellis Cup next weekend. 

“New Zealand are the god of rugby, so we had to take it to them. We wanted to show that we could take the game to them, try to put them on the back foot as much as we could,” said the Australian.

Great respect shown by two great teams after a tough 80 minutes on the pitch.#ENGvNZL #RWC2019 #WebbEllisCup pic.twitter.com/12OO0XvK2f

— Rugby World Cup (@rugbyworldcup) October 26, 2019

Asked where the performance ranked among England’s best of all time, he said: “It gives us another week. We are here for another week so we’re looking forward to it. We’re not historians, so we don’t know.

“But we know that we can play better next week and we’re going to have to play better, whoever we play against.

“We are looking forward to Wales and South Africa play a 3-3 draw, so they have to play extra time and it’s still 3-3 and they have to play more extra time. That’s the prediction.”

Jones is backing England to win a second World Cup four years after they suffered the humiliation of failing to progress from their pool on home soil.

“We’ve got the right focus. I can remember the meeting at Pennyhill Park, our first meeting together. We wanted to be the best team in the world and we’re not the best team in the world,” he said.

“We’ve an opportunity to play in a game where we can prove we are and that’s the only thing we are concerned with.”

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