Eddie Jones: England boss to follow Tour de France team in attempt to improve on perfect start as Red Rose boss
Jones will follow ORICA-GreenEDGE team as he looks to build on nine wins from first nine games
EDDIE JONES will ride into the Tour de France this weekend looking to start England’s next cycle of success.
The unbeaten Red Rose boss added a first-ever series win against Australia to his Six Nations Grand Slam haul.
Now Jones will shadow Aussie team ORICA-GreenEDGE to see if he can pinch any ideas to keep England at the front of the peloton.
He said: “I’m going to watch how they prepare because I’ve got to get better, our coaching staff’s got to get better.
“The next two months is about us planning our strategy going forward.
“There are areas where we are not where we need to be, but we can work on that over the next few months and make sure we put together the right squad to beat South Africa.”
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England’s 44-40 win Down Under has fans calling for a showdown with world champions New Zealand.
Steve Hansen’s side are coming to Twickenham in 2018 but a 2017 game also has a chance. Jones, 56, said: “I’d be happy to play the All Blacks tomorrow.
“You can never take your foot off the pedal. As soon as you do, you get weak.
“And we can’t afford to get weak because we want to be the world’s No 1 team and we are miles away from the All Blacks.
“I’ve always said there is talent in England. Over the last four years they had spasmodically peak performances.
“All we’ve tried to do is get consistency in attitude and in preparation — then you get consistency of performance.”
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BOOT MASTER
OWEN FARRELL was hailed as the world’s best goal-kicker after his Sydney masterclass.
England’s centre equalled his best Test match haul with 24 points against Australia.
Farrell is on course to challenge World Cup-winner Jonny Wilkinson’s Red Rose record 1,179 points in his 91 Tests.
Farrell has 478 in 43 games — but is just 24 years old.
Scrum-half Ben Youngs, who also played alongside Wilko for England, said: “Owen is the best goal-kicker in the world, without doubt.
“Every time we win a penalty I walk back as if we are going to receive a kick-off. I have absolute confidence in him.
“He has shown just what a world-class goal-kicker can bring to a side. You just keep building that score.”
England have won nine Tests in a row under Eddie Jones, landing the Grand Slam and a 3-0 series whitewash against Oz.
And Saracens star Farrell will be key to their bid to stay unbeaten throughout 2016. They face South Africa, Argentina and Fiji in three of their autumn internationals — before a rematch with the Wallabies.
Youngs, 26, said: “This squad will continue to get better and better.
“Guys will get more experience at club and international level and if we can perform like we have, that will put us in good stead in the autumn.
“I don’t think it’s quite sunk in the magnitude of what we have achieved. But at the moment it feels great.
“The Grand Slam was great and it gave this side a springboard of confidence. We turned up here confident and we truly believed we could achieve what we managed to achieve.
“I’ve been on summer tours before and it has almost been an end-of-year getaway.
“The mindset of coming over here and actually trying to do something has been really refreshing.
“I think it just shows Eddie Jones’ experience as a coach.”