Jones - England are not yet good enough to win World Cup

England coach Eddie Jones has insisted that his side are not yet ready to win the Rugby World Cup despite being one win away from history.

A 61-21 demolition of Scotland last weekend saw England retain the Six Nations and they will seal back-to-back Grand Slams by beating Ireland in Dublin, while victory would also see them set a new record of 19 consecutive Test wins for a tier one nation.

But Jones believes that England, who have Billy Vunipola and Anthony Watson back in the starting XV against Ireland, do not have enough leaders to take New Zealand’s crown in Japan in 2019.

“We don’t have the density we need to win the World Cup, in terms of leaders,” he said. “But having said that, we’ve progressed a long way in the 14 months we’ve been together.

“We’ve gone from a team that probably had one or two self-reliant players, to probably three or four, going up to five or six. So we’re getting there, we’re going in the right direction.

“But it’s going to take a lot of work to get a team good enough to win the World Cup because we’re not good enough at the moment.”

Jones went on to acknowledge that his predecessor, Stuart Lancaster, who is now part of the Leinster coaching staff, played a vital role in laying the foundations for England’s impressive form.

Lancaster’s reign ended in disappointing fashion as England were knocked out of the pool stages at their home World Cup, but Jones says that should not diminish the work he did with the team.

“The guy I think should get a lot of credit for the team’s success is Stuart Lancaster,” he said. “He was the guy who brought this team through, went through some hard yards with them.

“Most of the players are still the same. I know he’s batting on the other side now [with Leinster] so I don’t know who he’ll be batting for on Saturday!”