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Twickenham - Eddie Jones put his England players on notice
by warning none of them "owned" a Test shirt after a perfect first
year as Red Rose boss ended with victory over his native Australia.
England's 37-21 defeat of the Wallabies at Twickenham on
Saturday saw them equal their national record of 14 successive Test victories
set by Clive Woodward's World Cup winners in 2002-03.
It also meant Australian coach Jones's first year as England
boss finished with a perfect played 13, won 13 record.
England won on Saturday despite the absence of injured
first-choice forwards, Billy Vunipola, James Haskell and Maro Itoje.
But Jones warned that no one "owned" an England
shirt.
"If you don't keep performing, you won't be in the
team," he said.
"If players aren't hungry and you see it in their
performance straight away, then they won't be here.
"We have enough depth to change the squad if we need
to," added Jones as he looked ahead to the defence of a Six Nations title
his England side won with a Grand Slam in 2016.
"No one owns an English jersey, you borrow the jersey
for 80 minutes. You're lucky to get it again, you have to work hard to get it
and if you don't have the right attitude, then you won't get it."
But only injury is likely to deny Owen Farrell a place in
the side after Jones labelled the inside centre as England's "standard
bearer".
Saturday saw Farrell land all his six goal-kicks against the
Wallabies despite not being fully fit in the view of his coach.
"Owen is the spirit of the team. He's an absolute
competitor," Jones said.
"He hasn't been at his best this autumn - it's quite
clear he's still recovering from his back injury. I'd say he's probably been at
80 percent of his total fitness.
"To win those four Tests when your inside centre is
nowhere near his best is a pretty good effort. He's enormous for us. He's the
standard bearer."
Jones has known of Farrell's ability since the midfielder
was a teenager.
"He's always been a fantastic player," he said.
"I knew him from when I was at Saracens. I signed him to the academy
there, because I knew he had a massive potential and a competitive desire - like his dad (dual code international Andy).
"He played a trial against Toulon when he was only
about 16 and nine months and Sonny Bill Williams was making his debut for
Toulon.
"Owen got the ball and Sonny Bill Williams whacked him
and stood over the top of him.
"He just bounced up on his feet and continued on like
nothing had happened. You could tell he was going to be a good player."
Ben Youngs is another back who appears to have strengthened
his place in the team after Jones told the scrum-half he needed to get fitter.
Youngs, who scored the third of England's four tries on Saturday with a quickly-taken tap penalty where he dummied opposing No 9 Nick Phipps, said: "I am really enjoying my rugby and that's credit to Eddie.
"He's not letting me have any chocolate!
"When I first turned up he said I needed to be lighter
and leaner.
"The way the game is going, it is quicker and faster
and he needed me to operate at a higher level.
"When a coach tells you to lose a couple of kilos there could be a lot worse things to work on."
