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How Eddie Jones plans to beat 'the greatest team in sport' in World Cup semi-final

Beauden Barrett celebrates scoring a try for the All Blacks against Ireland in their quarter-final clash in Tokyo. (Photo by Hannah Peters/Getty Images)

Eddie Jones has braced England to face what he is claiming is the most dominant team in the history of sport but is convinced New Zealand can be dethroned in Saturday’s Rugby World Cup semi-final.

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Jones points to the All Blacks‘ win percentage of 86 since successfully defending the Webb Ellis Trophy four years ago to support his view that they occupy a unique position, also insisting the southern hemisphere’s Rugby Championship is tougher than Europe’s Six Nations.

The All Blacks’ 46-14 demolition of Ireland has set up a seismic showdown in Yokohama but Jones insists his quarter-final conquerors of Australia have the potential to seize greatness for themselves.

Continue reading below…

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“We have a challenge this week because we are playing the greatest team that has ever been in sport,” said Jones.

“If you look at their record I don’t think there’s a team that comes close to them for sustainability. Since the last World Cup they’ve won a high percentage of their tests.

“Name me another team in the world that plays at the absolute top level that wins so many of their games.

“They are playing in the toughest competition in the world against the best all the time. I just admire them. To do what they do from a small country is incredible.

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“It’s an example of what you can do. People are raving about Japan at the moment and it’s fantastic but you look at what New Zealand have done with four million people.

“You have to admire them, but then the challenge is to beat them and the reason I took this job is because I saw a team that could be great. That was the challenge and they are starting to believe it.

“New Zealand are a great team with a great coach with a great captain, but like any team they are beatable and there are ways to beat them.

England are attempting reach the final for the first time since 2007 and Jones welcomes the challenge.

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“We are in a World Cup in a neutral country, referees, crowd, atmosphere and the teams that adapt are the ones making it to the end of the competition,” Jones said.

“Now talent doesn’t matter – it’s all about how strong the team is. When you get to this stage of the tournament, it’s about how strong the team is.

“We’re a strong team and we’re getting stronger all the time. We’re believing in each other, we believe in the way we play. We’re playing to our strengths.

“Look at the second-half score against Australia – it was 23-7. That doesn’t come from blowing magic dust, it comes from working hard.”

AAP

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N
NH 3 hours ago
'The Wallabies need to convert much better - or Melbourne could be much worse'

Nice one as always Brett. I think the stats hide a bit of the dominance the lions had, and they would look alot worse in that first half when the game was more in the balance. You mention it here but I think it hasn’t been talked about enough was the lineout. The few times the wallabies managed to exit their half and get an opportunity to attack in the 1st half, the lineout was lost. This was huge in terms of lions keeping momentum and getting another chance to attack, rather than the wallabies getting their chance and to properly ‘exit’ their half. The other one you touch on re “the will jordan bounce of the ball” - is kick chase/receipt. I thought that the wallabies kicked relatively well (although were beaten in this area - Tom L rubbish penalty kicks for touch!), but our kick receipt and chase wasn’t good enough jorgenson try aside. In the 1st half there was a moment where russell kicked for a 50:22 and potter fumbled it into touch after been caught out of position, lynagh makes a similar kick off 1st phase soon after and keenan is good enough to predict the kick, catch it at his bootlaces and put a kick in. That kick happened to go out on the full but it was a demonstration on the difference in positioning etc. This meant that almost every contested kick that was spilled went the way of the lions, thats no accident, that is a better chase, more urgency, more players in the area. Wallabies need to be better in who fields their kicks getting maxy and wright under most of them and Lynagh under less, and the chase needs to be the responsibility of not just one winger but a whole group of players who pressure not just the catch but the tackle, ruck and following phase.

17 Go to comments
J
JW 3 hours ago
Competing interests and rotated squads: What the 'player welfare summer' is really telling us

Thanks for the further background to player welfare metrics Nick.


Back on the last article I noted that WR is now dedicating a whole section in their six-point business plan to this topic. It also noted that studies indicated 85-90% of workload falls outside of playing. So in respect to your point on the classification of ‘involvements’, needing to include even subs with a low volume of minutes, it actually goes further to the wider group of players that train as if they’re going to be required to start on the weekend. That makes even the 30-35 game borderline pale into insignificance.


No doubt it is one of the main reasons why France has a quota on the number of any one clubs amount of players in their International camps, where they rotate in other clubs players through the week (those not chosen in the 23 on Tues/Wed must be rotated out with players from another club for the remaining weeks prep). The number of ‘invisible’ games against a players season tally or predicted workload suggests the FFRs 25 game limit as more appropriate?


So if we take it at face value that Galthie and the FFR have got it right, only a dozen players from the last 60 international caps should have gone on this tour. More players from the ‘Scotland 23’ than the more recent 23 were eligible.


The only real pertinent question is what do players prefer more, health or money? There are lots of ethical decisions, like for instance whether France could make a market like Australia’s where their biggest rugby codes have yearly broadcast deals of 360 and 225 million euros. They do it by having a 7/8 month season, but ultimately if they don’t want it to change they can just play 11 months in the season instead.

72 Go to comments
LONG READ
LONG READ Nobody runs the show like Beauden - Why the All Blacks need Barrett now, and at Rugby World Cup 2027 Nobody runs the show like Beauden - Why the All Blacks need Barrett now, and at Rugby World Cup 2027