Publications
Partners
Tokyo - England coach Eddie Jones said his focus was on beating an "impressive" France side in their final Pool C encounter, insisting there was no temptation to rest players with a Rugby World Cup knock-out spot secured.
After becoming the first team into the quarter-finals with a comfortable but not faultless 39-10 win against Argentina, Jones refused to look ahead to a potential last-eight clash against Australia or Wales.
"We're just worried about France next week. It's qualification for the quarter-finals but our emphasis is just on getting better each game," said Jones.
Jacques Brunel's team can also secure a quarter-final berth with a win over Tonga on Sunday, potentially setting up a "Le Crunch" in Yokohama on October 12 with the winner topping the group.
"No, no, no," said Jones, when asked if he would rotate players with a quarter-final already in the bag.
"As I said, we're building. We want to get better next week. We'll have a look at selection, pick the best 23 to get better next week."
Jones said he was pleased to get through a "banana slip" game against Argentina, who went down to 14 men after Tomas Lava0nini's red card for a high tackle.
Losing a player can sharpen the focus of the 14-man side and make the other team impatient, said Jones, noting that England had beaten Argentina "easily" in 2016 after going a man down.
"You've got to be careful, so I was really pleased with the leadership of the team," he said.
Turning to next week's match, he highlighted some traditional French flair shown in patches in Les Bleus' narrow 23-21 victory over Argentina.
"The French were impressive in the first game against Argentina. They played some good rugby, couple of great unstructured tries at the start of the game," he said.
The set piece is "always challenging against France", who he said were "a particularly big team".
"We're going to have to work hard defensively next week against them," he stressed.
Fly-half George Ford said whoever got the nod as his opposite number for France, they would be a "very dangerous team".
"It's going to be a challenging game. The fitness they've shown in this World Cup so far, the French flair when they get their off-loading game. We're looking forward to that," Ford told reporters.
Jones bristled when reminded that two of England's wins so far have been against two relatively weak teams in the United States and Tonga.
"We can only play who they put in front of us. Obviously it's going to get tougher but that's what the competition's about," he said.
Jones had the luxury of 31 fit players to pick from and dismissed concerns over number eight Billy Vunipola, saying the ankle injury that forced him out at half-time was not "too serious".
And he drew positives from the return from injury of Billy's brother Mako, who came on as a replacement prop, as well as Jack Nowell, who came off the bench to score a sensational try.
"We had two guys, Mako and Jack Nowell, who haven't played rugby for five or six months at least and they got a bit of a gallop."
Jones also fired a warning to future opponents when he said: "We haven't played to our best yet, which is good because that's what the competition is about."
