Like poetry, England true to themselves

Eddie Jones believes England’s stunning series win in Australia could ignite the imaginations of children to become the next Owen Farrell rather than Harry Kane.

For the first time in their history, the Grand Slam champions have completed a series victory over one of the southern hemisphere giants after departing AAMI Park with an impressive 23-7 win.

They have supplanted the Wallabies in second place in the world rankings and a ninth victory of Jones’ reign in Sydney on Saturday would complete a 3-0 whitewash.

“The fantastic thing is that to win a series like this is a win for English rugby in total.

“It’s a nice thing to have and a great thing for English rugby.

“Young kids will be sitting at home and rather than wanting to be Dele Alli or Harry Kane, they might want to be Anthony Watson, Jonathan Joseph, Owen Farrell or George Ford.

“That’s the sort of thing that rugby does.

“The power of having a strong international rugby team is that it means kids want to play rugby.

“We want these guys to be heroes for English rugby.” England’s victory was founded on a courageous defensive display that was inspired by ‘The Guy In The Glass’ by Dale Wimbrow, a poem about being true to yourself that was read to the squad earlier in the week by assistant coach Paul Gustard.

The tourists made more than three times as many tackles as their opponents and ran themselves into the ground to protect their line, with a late converted try and penalty from Owen Farrell giving the scoreline its lop-sided look.

Jones is set to make changes for the third Test knowing many of his players are exhausted, while the fitness of Jack Nowell and James Haskell is being monitored due to respective concussion and foot issues.

“We’ve got a few players with bumps and bruises so will have to look at our selection very carefully,” said Jones, who has ordered his players tokeep their feet on the Wallabies’ throats by winning at Allianz Stadium on Saturday.

A bad-tempered clash in Melbourne extended Jones’ triumphant sequence replacing Stuart Lancaster to eight games and he has yet to taste defeat, but the Australian is aware that he is riding the crest of a wave.

England’s star performer was the relentless Chris Robshaw, who marked his 50th cap with a man of the match display, although the likes of Farrell, James Haskell and Mako Vunipola were not far behind.

“Playing one of the best attacking sides in world rugby, on their own patch, we knew it would be tough and we can’t wait until next week, tofinish it off properly,” Robshaw said.

Meanwhile Jones again insisted he will not lead the British and Irish Lions tour to New Zealand next year.

“I am honoured to be thought of in that area but I have a massive commitment to England and the RFU and I can’t afford to spend any time away from the team,” he said.

“While it might be nice to do it professionally my job is to make Englandthe best in the world and I am going to do that 100 per cent.

“So unfortunately I am unavailable for the Lions. Absolutely no.