England coach Jones wary of Big Bad Wolf Hansen
England coach Eddie Jones is wary of accepting compliments from the Big Bad Wolf, known more commonly as New Zealand counterpart Steve Hansen.
Hansen offered his congratulations to Jones after England equalled the All Blacks' record of 18 consecutive victories for a tier-one nation by battering Scotland 61-21 in the Six Nations on Saturday.
The record will be England's alone if they can beat Ireland in Dublin this weekend, which would also see them clinch back-to-back Grand Slams.
Rather than be disappointed that New Zealand, whose own run ended against Ireland in November, may no longer have the accolade Hansen welcomed the competition.
Speaking to BBC Radio 5 live's Sportsweek, he said: "I'd like to congratulate England on equalling the record. It's great for rugby because we want competition and games that people want to watch and get excited by."
But Jones is taking Hansen's comments with a pinch of salt and likened him to the protagonist in the fairytale 'Little Red Riding Hood'.
"Hearing Steve Hansen make comments reminds me of Little Red Riding Hood and the wolf dressed up as her grandmother," Jones told BBC Radio 5 live's Rugby Union Weekly podcast.
"You've always got to be careful of compliments, particularly from an All Blacks coach."
England may be closing in on history, but world champions New Zealand remain the top-ranked Test team in the world.
And Jones says his team still have some way to go before being at the same level as the All Blacks.
"We're not the number-one team in the world, the All Blacks are, so we're not on their level," he added.
"That's what we aspire to be and we'll keep aspiring and working hard and making sure every day we get better, to get to that number one.
"They've probably got the ability to have more attacking threats in unstructured play than we do, their ability to convert small opportunities to points is quite outstanding and if you just look at the comparison between the number of tries they've scored and the number of tries we've scored in the corresponding 18 Tests, they've got a substantial advantage in that area.
"But that's something we're gradually improving in."
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Big sigh of relief from Erasmus. At 13-8 bizarrely it felt SA were under scoreboard pressure. SA registered no points from 28 mins to 65 and Ireland started to get the upper hand from after the bomb squad came on (50 mins). I think SA felt that Ireland might get a purple patch. My feeling is that Leinster’s extended stay at altitude and then Ireland’s in a camp scenario meant that Altitude was not a decisive factor and perhaps Ireland had the more endurance. Ireland scored 12 points in last 5 mins. Now count Kolbe’s try (TMO) +7 points , Lowes restart intervention from what would have been an Irish screm on the centre circle +7 points. Ireland’s dissallowed try +7 points. That’s 21 points going SA way in that ending. I am not suggesting Ireland should have won. I do think there is evidence that SA got the fitness assessment wrong and ran themselves into problems? If points go other way the score is 27-13. Although better on the day Ireland will have some regrets. But I think a few ‘altitude’ mistakes on both sides opened it up at the end. Long and short of it, will Erasmus risk the expansive game again? There may be less jeopardy at sea level but I predict SA will have a more typical Plan B to revert to very quickly if things aren’t going well.
Go to commentsTabloid stuff from a site owned by world rugby. Throwing their players under the bus for cheap clicks.
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