Cheika frustrated by Wallabies defeat

The build-up to Saturday’s match had featured plenty of verbal sparring between Cheika and Jones, once team-mates at Sydney club Randwick.

Having provinces on the same page has paid off for New Zealand, who has had a formally centralised program in place for a long time, with coaches contracted through the NZRU.

In an ominous sign for Cheika’s side England scored following an Australia error when Nick Phipps’ errant pass to Sekope Kepu fell behind the prop and his desperate attempt to knock the ball back to a gold jersey only fell into the path of Farrell. Eddie Jones is the real clown of the world rugby circus.

But Jones warned that no one “owned” an England shirt. “I don’t think that’s amusing, I think that’s bad form”, he said, similarly unimpressed when he was depicted as a clown by the New Zealand Herald in October.

Their total of 14 wins began at the 2015 World Cup win against Uruguay and they are now just four short of catching the All Black’s record set this year.

“While we haven’t had the results on the field, I think the vision was always to grow Wallabies and they’ve definitely done that”.

“The wins breed confidence”, flanker Tom Wood said.

Gustard remains adamant England can still scale new heights in 2017, admitting “all the players speak about is being number one in the world”.

After his fourth victory over Australia, Jones challenged his side to back up their remarkable feat of completing the year unbeaten – they are the first England side to do so since Will Carling’s team of 1992 – by repeating the feat next year.

But after England made it 13 wins out of 13 under Jones for a flawless 2016, the coach said: “Firstly I’d just like to apologize, I’ve forgotten my red nose, but I’ll get it later and put it on”. “But we’re moving in the right direction”.

Australia’s try started from a scrum, which was ironic, because the scrum was a hostile subject between the coaches in the buildup.

He added: “I know we’ll be criticised for losing but you have to wear that sometimes”. The players are sharp and on it.

England will not want to watch too many replays of the first 20 minutes – though the coaching staff will make sure they do – but it will enjoy the rest of what was a highly impressive performance, mixing aggressive pragmatism with slick handling and inventive attacking.

“We don’t get a head start because we won 3-0 in Australia”.

Asked what extra satisfaction he took from the win, Jones said: “Zero, mate”.

“Seeing the improvements we’ve made, we’re scoring tries that we wouldn’t have scored a year ago”, Cheika began.

“The Australian used to have a good cartoonist and now they don’t”.

“I don’t think Cheik’s overly-big on that type of thing happening in the press”, Giteau told Sky Sports.

“I actually signed him at Saracens so knew he had lots of potential and a massive competitive side, like his dad (Andy). He’s smiling there, and cracking jokes”. “It’s probably because no one reads the paper now so they can’t afford to have a good cartoonist”.

“This is Australia’s last game”. He cracks the whip on them and nothing is left to chance.

Jones insists the current team is not as good as that vintage as he plots a way towards the next World Cup in Japan in 2019.