Publications
Partners
Cape Town - England head coach Eddie Jones has revealed that he has been impressed by utility back Danny Cipriani's attitude during the tour to South Africa.
The tourists go into Saturday's third Test at Newlands trying to gain some lost pride, after losing the opening Tests to the Springboks in Johannesburg and Bloemfontein, and have now suffered five successive Test defeats.
But despite their poor record, Jones revealed that Cipriani made a positive impact when he came on as a replacement for first-choice fly-half George Ford late in the second half during the second Test in Bloemfontein.
"I've been impressed by him", Jones told Sky Sports.
"I'm impressed by George Ford and I'm impressed by Alex Lozowski. They're all guys that are really working hard to get into the team.
"The thing that's impressed me about Danny is his attitude towards working hard and wanting to be part of the team."
England are without several first-choice players from their regular squad for the tour of South Africa, but there is one player in particular who Jones regrets being unable to select.
"I think we've missed all of those (unavailable) players. Certainly against South Africa a player like Courtney Lawes would have been invaluable", he added.
"We understand that results aren't great and we're all disappointed by that. But in terms of moving forward, we're in a good position."
After the team's poor recent record, Jones admitted that there is plenty of room for improvement from his charges.
"We've got a young team here - we've been averaging 400 caps per game," he said.
"It's all about just trying to give them as much confidence as we can and trying to get them to understand there are going to be big moments in the game - and we need to play those big moments a little bit better than we have."
