Eddie Jones praises England performance

Editor

Eddie Jones praised England’s victory over South Africa on Saturday and said they would play Rassie Erasmus’ men at Twickenham next weekend if it were possible.

The visitors ran out 25-10 winners over the Springboks in Cape Town, pulling a Test back in the series to make it 2-1, and Jones was impressed by the grit and determination showed by his side in challenging conditions.

“We just handled the bigger moments better; if you look back at the first two Tests we put ourselves in positions to win the games, but when the pressure changed we didn’t handle it well,” he said.

“But on Saturday we kept our composure, focused on the next play and showed good leadership from the players.

“We’d like to play South Africa next week because I think we are coming to a peak, so we should arrange a game at Twickenham next week, put back Super Rugby for a week.”

England led 6-3 at the break thanks to the boot of captain Owen Farrell, but saw themselves concede the game’s first try early in the second, through centre Jesse Kriel.

But a further four Farrell penalties and a late Jonny May try sealed England’s sole victory this summer, and ended a run of five Test defeats.

“I thought it was a great series of rugby, for the healthiness of Test rugby it was fantastic,” said Jones of the tour.

“A South African side revitalized and well balanced against a young England side finding their way. The first two games South Africa were too good, they deserved to win the series, but there were only small margins in the series.”

Leicester wing May became the first player to score in four consecutive games against the Springboks on Saturday, and has now also bagged a try in each of his last five Tests for England.

And Jones highlighted the 28-year-old as a stand-out performer this summer.

“Jonny has been outstanding all tour, he has been incredible,” Jones added of his second-half score.

“I thought he was going to run into the corporate boxes in the grandstand – sometimes he forgets it’s a north south game, he goes east west a bit. He scored three tries, and was probably involved in at least two others this tour.”

In addition to May, Jones was quick to praise the efforts shown by Harlequins Joe Marler and Chris Robshaw in the third Test, as well as Sale Sharks’ Tom Curry.

“Young Curry has played three Test matches on the hop against the most physical pack in the world, and has now probably played more Test matches than he has Premiership rugby, so he has a lot of potential,” he added.