The best is yet to come, warns Jones

AUSTRALIA coach Eddie Jones was impressed by England’s performance against France in the atrocious Sydney conditions but warned Clive Woodward’s men ahead of next week’s World Cup final that the best is yet to come from his Wallabies.

“England were very impressive in the way they dominated the set-pieces,” said Jones.

“They put enormous pressure on France through their domination of possession and good field positions.

“It was outstanding how they stopped the French attack from getting over the gain line,” he said.

“Wilkinson played well. He controlled field position through an excellent kicking game.”

Australia did their part to set up the mouth-watering final with victory over tournament favourites New Zealand.

It was described as the first shock of the tournament after Australia’s patchy form leading into the clash.

But all year, as his side struggled through the Tri-Nations, Jones insisted they were making significant progress, that his programme was designed for the side to peak in the knockout stages.

“Our minds are set on next week. We know we haven’t achieved what we want to achieve,” Jones said.

“There is no way this side has played as well as they can and everyone involved knows that. Our focus is very much on playing as well as we can.

“When you keep working hard and keep working towards a plan, eventually it will come for you. We are as fit as we can be. We are able to play for longer periods at greater intensity because of our fitness levels.

“We know firmly that we can play better.

“Everything we are doing is moving in a positive direction. You can always improve the details. We didn’t attack with the precision we would like to, set-pieces are an on-going evolvement.

“We have just got to continue to get better in the line-out and scrum. The game next week is going to be a set-piece contest,” he said.

“It will be a different sort of game but we’ve played England twice in the last two years, so we’re reasonably familiar with the way they play the game.”

Meanwhile, humbled New Zealand coach John Mitchell insisted he would not resign after their semi-final defeat.

“I love coaching. They are a fantastic group and there is no hint of me handing in my resignation,” he said.

“That’s up to my employers and the person they want to take New Zealand rugby forward in 2004.

“I’m accountable for this team and that performance. There are no excuses. We didn’t get it right. I feel sorry for the fans in New Zealand but we feel twice as bad.”

Mitchell rejected claims the All Blacks were perennial “chokers” after their defeats in the 1995 World Cup final and the semis in 1991 and 1999.

“We didn’t choke at all. That’s just a bit of a buzz-word that goes around. We just got beaten by the better team. They were forceful in the breakdown. Our execution was poor and we did not deserve victory,” he said.

“I’m very disappointed but the effort we put in was huge, things didn’t go for us. But these things can happen in a career.

“We tried to come back but our execution of skill in the carry and the tackle was not good. A lot of slow ball ends up being no ball. We were stopped from playing and you’ve got to give Australia credit for that.”

It was, in some ways, a mutual appreciation society with Jones paying tribute to the strides taken by New Zealand this year.

“New Zealand set the standard for world rugby,” he said.

“The scoreboard this season still reads 2-1. We were good enough this time, but don’t lose sight of the fact that New Zealand have set the standards.”