Wallabies coach Eddie Jones believes he was afforded enough time to transform his side into a World Cup winning team.

Before the World Cup in France in September, Australia has dropped three spots in the rankings and is now ranked seventh.

Jones, who used to lead England, is getting ready for his first game on July 8 against South Africa in Pretoria. He said his goal was to get the Wallabies back to being the best team in the world.

“We’re seven and so we’ve got work to do to get to number one, because we want to be number one,” he said at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, where they will face the All Blacks on July 29.

“We understand what the gap is and that it’ll take the coaching staff and the players to work hard and to work smart to fill the gap.”

He used the fact that South Africa won the 2019 World Cup in Japan after being ranked seventh the year before as an example of what was possible.

“So in a short period of time, you could change the team remarkably, you could change an individual remarkably… And that’s the job.”

“Plenty of time. Too much time. As I said, you only need a week to change a team so imagine in 10 weeks what we can do.”

Jones held his first training camp with 33 players this month, but Quade Cooper, Samu Kerevi, and Melbourne Rebels lock Matt Phillips, all experienced Wallabies who play in Japan, were not there.

They have been out for a long time with injuries, but Jones went to Japan last week to check on Cooper (Achilles) and Kerevi (knee) and make sure they were getting better.

“He ran on well, and he ran off well, so that’s a start. He’s obviously got to do a bit more than that,” he said of veteran playmaker Cooper, who made a brief return with his club Kintetsu Liners last week.

“He’s progressing really nicely, Kerevi’s progressing really nicely. We’ve got a number of players coming back so it’s really promising.”

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