Eddie Jones: The pressure to win makes England’s task very difficult

Jones believes his successor Steve Borthwick, under whom England have won their past seven Tests and finished third in the 2023 Rugby World Cup, is managing the transition well.

“Steve inherited that [situation] “You did a great job at the 2023 World Cup,” Jones said.

“He coached very efficiently and got the most out of this team. Now he is creating a different team.”

England’s pair in the Test against Argentina in the summer caught Jones’ attention.

“He’s starting to build a really effective style,” Jones said. “They played really good rugby against Argentina – pragmatic, very efficient, tough, conservative, all traits that Steve had as a player.”

Borthwick was Jones’ striker coach during the Australian’s most successful spell with England, and the duo similarly combined to help Japan achieve a historic win over South Africa in the 2015 World Cup.

Jones says the Brave Blossoms’ 34-32 win over the Springboks had the biggest legacy of any result in his 30-year coaching career.

“How is it evaluated? Well, probably in terms of the implications of this win, it’s the most important,” Jones said.

“2015 was the catalyst for the 2019 World Cup, when Japan hosted a very good World Cup and, for the first time ever and the only time, reached the quarter-finals.

“This is a very rare achievement for a country outside the world’s top eight.

“The 2023 World Cup was a bit more difficult for Japan, but it allowed Japan to be at the top level of countries in the world and compete at the highest level.

“Like this year, if you just look at our tour at the end of the season, we’re up against Australia, South Africa, Ireland, Wales and Georgia.

“When I played Japan in 2012, we played Romania and Georgia and had a little game against the French Barbarians.

“So it gives the players the opportunity to play against the best in the world, to put Japan in the top division, all from that match in 2015.”

After overseeing Australia’s exit from the pool stage of the 2023 Rugby World Cup, Jones will captain Japan for the second time.

On Saturday, nearly 10 years after that shock in Brighton, his team will face South Africa again on British soil, at Wembley Stadium.

The match will pit Jones against South Africa’s Erasmus, who has similarly mixed innovation and candor throughout his coaching career.

Jones says he learned a lot about Erasmus via a laptop he was given during a short spell with the Springboks during their title-winning run at the 2007 World Cup.