Rugby World Cup 2019: Eddie Jones seeks improvement, despite beating the 'gods of rugby'

Eddie Jones says England have beaten "the gods of rugby" but adds they must not get complacent after reaching the Rugby World Cup final for the first time since 2007.

England toppled New Zealand 19-7 to reach the final, where they'll meet South Africa or Wales in the decider. 

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Having not beaten the All Blacks in their past six meetings, New Zealand was expected to dominate, but that wasn't the case as a sell-out Yokohama crowd watched England storm home to a famous win. 

After beating Australia to reach the semi-finals, Jones warned the world that the best was still to come from England, but not many people believed him. 

Jones ultimately had the last laugh but admits his side must continue to lift their game if they want to raise the William Webb Ellis trophy for the second time.  

"New Zealand are the god of rugby, so we had to take it to them," he said. "We wanted to take it to them and show we could take the game to them, try to put them on the back foot as much as we could.

"They are a great team. They have won two World Cups in a row. They have got a great coach, a great captain, so we had to battle hard.

"You always go in with an idea of how you want the game to be, but it never goes exactly like that. You have got to give so much credit to New Zealand, the way they kept fighting right until the end. We had to dig deep."

Jones didn't specify who he wants to face in the final, but did give an unlikely prediction on what would happen in the second semi-final, which takes place on Sunday night. 

"We don't control that. But I'll definitely come and watch the game.

"We're looking forward to Wales and South Africa playing a 3-3 draw, so they have to play extra time, it's still 3-3, and they have to play more extra time."

The All Blacks were held scoreless in the first half for the second time in World Cup history - the other time occurred in the semi-final against Australia in 1991. 

England were leading 13-0 when a lapse in concentration gifted the All Blacks their only try when Ardie Savea caught a line-out ball to crash over in the 57th minute. 

Jones praised his players for not giving in at that moment as they shut out the All Blacks to seal the win. 

The psychological process of the game is becoming increasingly important.

"There is so little difference between the teams so [one needs] to try and understand what gives them energy and take that away from them. Then, for your own team, what gives us energy, what makes us play to our strengths.

"You have to be disciplined enough to follow that, and I think Owen [Farrell] and the other leaders on the field today were exceptional.

"They kept the team disciplined, kept to our gameplan and targeted areas where we thought New Zealand were weak."

Join us at 10pm Sunday for live updates of the South Africa v Wales Rugby World Cup semi.

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