Mourning after the night before

WALLABY coach Eddie Jones admitted yesterday that Australia need to follow England’s lead and start developing their own Jonny Wilkinson.

Jones watched on helplessly as Wilkinson slotted over a drop-goal inside the final minute of extra time to wreck Australia's dreams of back-to-back World Cup titles.

In sheeting rain hardly conducive for clinical running rugby, England dominated territory as Wilkinson and inside-centre Mike Tindall executed their tactical kicking game to perfection, exposing Australia's lack of emphasis on the boot and set-pieces.

Jones blamed the gung-ho style of Super 12 rugby and reflected on how far the Wallabies still needed to go if they want to regain the trophy.

"Wilkinson's just an unbelievable kicker of the ball. There's three basic skills in the game running, passing and kicking and he's an absolute freak at kicking. It comes from a pretty high level of natural ability but it's honed by hours of dedication and it goes to show what you can achieve in the game.

"We've got to have three Super 12 fly-halves (in the three provinces) who can kick tactically, accurately and can kick drop goals. It has to be part of their repertoire. As we go on in international rugby, one of the things that will separate sides is accurate kicking.

"Super 12 is such a running game and we play against sides in that competition whose defences aren't that flash and we score a lot of easy tries. We've got be able to develop young guys with kicking skills."

England's win took the World Cup to the northern hemisphere for the first time in the tournament's 16-year history and Jones admitted the likes of Australia and New Zealand had been caught.

"We've got to make scrummaging an art form in Australia. There's just got to be that consistent practice in technique," he said.

"The northern hemisphere definitely stole a march on us in set-piece contests, in line-outs and scrums. We've got to identify that as a serious problem and look at ways of remedying that. We just can't say it's a one-off situation. They are tactically and technically better than us in the line-out and scrum.

"In Europe, every line-out is contested whereas in Super 12 a good side maybe only has three games where they are seriously contesting in the line-out so it doesn't develop good habits."

What the Wallabies still have in abundance is heart and character, as evidenced in the way they rallied from 14-5 down to force extra-time with a late, late penalty from Elton Flatley.

In recent years, Australia have succeeded in coming through at the death, but Jones insisted their failure to do so yesterday was by no means a reflection on a weakness in the side.

"The only thing I'd say is just how well our guys acquitted themselves. They took it right to the wire against a very good side so that's a pretty good achievement," he said.

"It showed the great resolve of the team. "

"We actually thought at half-time the wind was stronger than people thought gave you 10 or 15 metres more carry in kicking, in a game like that a pretty big advantage. At half-time we were pretty confident of getting back into the game."