Monday 21 March 2016 08:28, UK
Eddie Jones has described skipper Dylan Hartley as a "likeable rogue" in the aftermath of England's first Six Nations Grand Slam in 13 years.
One of Jones's first moves when he took over as England's head coach in November was making Hartley captain, despite the Northampton hooker's disciplinary problems in the past.
His decision appears to have been fully vindicated as Hartley led by example throughout the championship, which culminated in victory over France in Paris on Saturday.
"The great thing about Dylan is he is a bit of a rogue and he is a likeable rogue as he has good people skills, he is not afraid to tell people what they should be doing when they are not doing it," Jones said.
"He is not afraid of giving someone a pat on the back and he has done an outstanding job as captain. He will get better, he has done a really good job.
"I'll sit down with Dylan over the next two to three weeks and plan out the Australian tour. At this stage there's no reason why Dylan won't be captain as long as he keeps improving as a player. If he keeps improving as a player, he'll remain as captain for the tour."
Hartley was carried off on a stretcher late on in Paris, but England held firm to secure a 31-21 victory to help banish the memory of a disappointing World Cup campaign when the hosts failed to even get out of their pool.
"When Dylan got injured the players took charge, Owen Farrell and George Ford knew exactly what they needed to do and that shows the growth of the team," Jones said.
"They are both in their early twenties so showed remarkable maturity, the way they played that last 10 minutes was fantastic."
With a tour to World Cup runners-up Australia on the horizon in June, Jones said the key was for his side to keep improving to compete with his home nation, as well as South Africa and New Zealand.
England's last Grand Slam success in 2003 was followed by a World Cup win eight months later so the omens are good heading into the summer tour, which kicks off in Brisbane on June 11.
"We need to keep improving the team and we will look at selection, look at the Premiership very closely to see how we can improve selection," Jones added.
"To win a Grand Slam is a nice achievement but I think there is more ahead of us so I am more excited by what could happen in the future rather than what happened yesterday.
"The ultimate challenge in world rugby at the moment is to beat those three southern hemisphere teams and everything we do is geared towards beating those teams. Whether we can beat them now, we will soon find out with Australia anyway.
"Brisbane is always a fast ground, it is always nice and humid, conducive to a lot of points so we've got to be prepared for that, so once we see who the referee is we'll see what sort of game that could eventuate there. But we are going to prepare for that very well."
