Jones will take an ‘arrogant’ England side to Australia

England head coach Eddie Jones has stated that he will bring an “arrogant” team down to Australia and said that Super Rugby puts him to sleep.

Six Nations Grand Slam champions England will tour Australia in June and play three Test matches against the Wallabies.

Jones said that he believes England have the potential to be the number 1 side in the world as they build towards the 2019 World Cup.

The Australian says that he has been watching Super Rugby from England and revealed that Super Rugby “puts him to sleep”

There is still two months of Super Rugby to play before England arrive in Australia but Jones has clearly set his sights on a series victory over the Wallabies.

“If we can keep pushing that (England) talent to work harder, there’s no reason why we can’t be the best team in the world,” Jones told Fairfax Media.

“You can’t sit back and wait for them to make mistakes. That means you’ve got to be a bit arrogant. ”

“We’ve got to be on front foot and going at Australia and hopefully we’ll see a great series of rugby which will help Bill Pulver out because he needs some money down there, hey? He might have to give me a commission.”

Jones is in the tour planning stages with tests in Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney so has been keeping an eye on how Australian rugby is going but says that having five Australian Super Rugby teams was “the worst decision the ARU ever made” as it has “diluted” the talent pool in Australia.

“I watch most of the [Super Rugby] games but some of the games put me to sleep,” Jones said.

“I don’t think the standard’s great this year. Having 18 teams in the competition, it’s really dropped the standards.”

“We used to have three teams of which two used to be very competitive and one might struggle a little bit. Now you’ve got one team that’s good, two teams that are struggling and two teams that don’t even know what their name is.”

Jones also branded Michael Cheika’s successor at the Waratahs Daryl Gibson as a “coat-tail” to the now national coach Cheika. Earlier this month Gibson said that Jones had ruined the attacking style of a generation of Australian players from his time as Wallabies coach.

Jones hit back with stinging criticism for Gibson.

“So we get some guy coming in on the coat-tail of Cheik and then tries to change his team and play like a Kiwi side and then blame a coach from ten years ago? That is pretty red hot,” Jones said.

“The surprising thing for me is he’s criticising what happened in Australia ten years ago and he’s trying to get the Waratahs to play like a Kiwi side. ”

“We’ve seen it with Robbie Deans; we don’t want Australian sides to play like New Zealand sides. That’s the great thing Cheik’s done with the Wallabies – he’s got them playing like an Australian team, not copying a Kiwi side.

“I was never a development coach. I coached the Brumbies, I coached the Wallabies and I coached the Reds. I never went around preaching and telling coaches how to coach. I don’t think a national coach ever has. That’s a job for a technical director. ”

“He [Gibson] doesn’t even know the difference between a national coach and a technical director.”

Jones also confirmed that he is looking at including former Rabbitoh Ben Te’o who holds an English passport for the Australian tour if he is eligible.

“He’s a Rabbitoh, he comes from a good area and he’s like a Wendell Sailor that can play centre,” Jones said.

“He’s a quality player and if he becomes eligible – so he has to have a live contract with an English club – then he’ll definitely come into contention. He’s a big, strong guy. ”

“He’s got a great fend, he can carry through contact, he’s got a good short passing game and he likes to hit people. And if you’ve got someone standing at 12 [inside centre] that can do that, they’re pretty handy.”