Owen Farrell praises England’s performance versus Japan as Eddie Jones turns attention on New Zealand | Rugby Union News

England scored seven tries against Japan to deliver a 52-13 victory at Twickenham Stadium; Owen Farrell and his side will now prepare to take on New Zealand next Saturday at Twickenham Stadium and head coach Eddie Jones said his side will “go after” the All Blacks

Owen Farrell praised his side’s performance and believes they have moved in the right direction

Owen Farrell said England felt more like themselves against Japan and head coach Eddie Jones has made it clear they will “go after” New Zealand next weekend.

England moved on from a tough loss to Argentina with a seven-try 52-13 victory at Twickenham Stadium.

The home side set out their stall from the first whistle; England’s pack dominated physically throughout and in attack, Farrell and his fellow backs looked more comfortable together.

“It felt more like us,” Farrell noted in the post-match press conference. “It felt more like what we were capable of.

“We’re not there yet… there are a few things to tidy up but in terms of intent and getting the best out of ourselves, it was miles better.”

England will now prepare to host New Zealand at Twickenham Stadium next weekend, with the All Blacks first facing Scotland on Sunday afternoon.

“We’ve had a short turnaround this week and we’ve had a big shift in attitude,” Farrell noted.

“We’ve now got seven days together now to see how much we can get better, how much closer and tighter we can become as a team, push our rugby a bit and make sure we turn up with the right attitude again.”

Following the 39-point victory over Jones’ former side Japan, the head coach was quick to praise his squad and the way in which they had worked over the course of the Test week.

“The players have been outstanding, the way that they’ve applied themselves. We played with a lot of really good purpose,” Jones said.

“It’s an improvement. As we said at the start of November, every game we want to get a little bit better. We were definitely better than the Argentina game.

“As I said in the round-up after Argentina, the fault that we didn’t play like that [against them] was my poor coaching. This week it’s not my poor coaching, it’s the good play from the players.”

Jones: We’ll go after New Zealand

Eddie Jones is urging his players to embrace the opportunity they have in front of them

The All Blacks’ first performance of the autumn saw them punish Wales 55-23 at the Principality Stadium. They scored seven tries and will look to build on that against Scotland on Sunday before focusing on England.

Jones cannot wait for his players to line-up against the Kiwis once again.

“It’s an opportunity to play against one of the giants of world rugby,” Jones said. “They’re in a redevelopment period of their game, they’re about to play Scotland so we’ll have a look at that and then chat about how we play against them.

“For an England player, it’s a massive opportunity. If you look at the history of the sport, the game’s been going for 150 years and England’s won 22 per cent of Tests against New Zealand.

“So, there’s a narrative about the game that says England can’t beat New Zealand. At the 2019 World Cup, I think we showed that if you’ve got the right attitude, the right game plan, then history can be broken.

“We’ve got a great opportunity this coming week to break history again and we look forward to the opportunity.”

England’s 19-7 result against New Zealand in that Rugby World Cup semi-final featured a number of individuals who remain in Jones’ squad.

Jones said: “The guys who played in that game, guys like Owen, Mako, Billy, Jamie George and Maro are going to be important in reinforcing to the players that it’s not mission impossible.

“If we go after them, then they’re their for the taking and we’re going to go after them.”