A magnanimous Eddie Jones says you might beat the All Blacks “on the scoreboard but you never actually beat them” as he continued to praise New Zealand despite his England team prevailing in the semi-final 19-7.
Jones, who has twice masterminded victories over the All Blacks in Rugby World Cup semi-finals, said his team was able to get the physical dominance over the New Zealand pack, particularly at the break.
"Steve Borthwick and Neal Hatley do a terrific job driving the forwards, I think we were able to get some physical ascendency in that area (the breakdown),” Jones said.
“You know it’s the way you attack their defence line, it’s the way you manage the breakdown situation so I think it’s due to the attitude of the players which is the reflections of their coaches which I think today Steve and Hats did a great job today.”
“It’s always a battle you know the thing about playing New Zealand is you might beat them on the scoreboard, but you never actually beat them - you see them at the end of the game they are still coming at us.”
All Blacks coach Steve Hansen agreed with his counterpart’s assessment of England’s dominance in the forwards.
“They created the go forward in the game, we struggled to dominate them at set piece time or breakdown time so when you are going forward you get all the iffy 50-50 decisions, that’s not us trying to make an excuse that’s just what happens in the game,” Hansen said.
“The scoreboard doesn’t go your way and then you have to start chasing and you start making fundamental errors like getting off side at breakdowns because you are desperate you start off loading balls you probably wouldn’t have to if the scoreboard was in your favour.”
Jones was also full of praise for his team’s leaders including captain Owen Farrell.
“I think the psychological approach to any game is increasingly becoming important, there is so little difference between the teams the ability to try and understand and what gives them energy and try and take that away from them and then for your own team what gives us energy what makes us play to our strengths,” he said.
“Then you have to be disciplined enough to follow that and I thought went and the leaders on the field were absolutely exceptional that they kept the team disciplined stuck to our game plan, kept attacking where we thought New Zealand was weak and didn't divert form there.”
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