Rugby-England have clear room for improvement, says coach Jones

Dec 8 ( Reuters) - England rugby coach Eddie Jones said his team have clear room to improve following an unbeaten year, as they pursue their quest to dislodge the All Blacks from the top of the world rankings.

England defeated Australia 37-21 on Saturday to complete a perfect year of 13 successive victories since Jones took charge, and a record-equalling 14th straight win in all.

"We want to be the No 1 team in the world. We talk about it all the time. The great thing is now the players are starting to talk about it," the Australian told Sky Sports.

"(But) we have not played anywhere near as well as we can so that is the exciting thing... By the way we train, we have got fitter but we probably have another 10 or 12 per cent left to improve in."

Jones looked as unimpressed as much of the Twickenham crowd on Saturday after an opening 20 minutes in which his team barely touched the ball and were lucky not to trail Australia by more than three points at half time.

"Our record is terrific and we are happy with the record but we are not happy with our performances," he said.

The turnaround engineered by Jones has included winning the country's first Six Nations Grand Slam since 2003 in March, whitewashing Australia 3-0 in a summer series and ending a 10-year winless streak against South Africa in November.

If England, who next face France at home on Feb. 4, go on to repeat their 2016 Grand Slam they would be the first team to do so in consecutive seasons - and surpass the international record of 18 straight wins set by New Zealand this year.

(Reporting by Debanjan Bose in Bengaluru; editing by John Stonestreet)