Eddie Jones admitted that England needed “Fergie time” to spare their blushes in their opening victory at the World Cup, claiming a pre-tournament visit from Sir Alex Ferguson helped to clinch a late bonus point in their win over Tonga.

England ran out 35-3 winners over the Pacific Islanders with two tries from the man of the match, Manu Tuilagi, and one each for Jamie George and Luke Cowan-Dickie. The fourth, and with it the bonus point, did not arrive until the 77th minute, however, capping a scrappy performance in which England made 14 handling errors.

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Jones will expect improvements in England’s second match on Thursday against the USA, whom he dubbed “15 Donald Trumps”, but the head coach praised his side for remaining calm as they sought a fourth try late on against Tonga, who conceded more than 90 points to New Zealand earlier this month.

While England were based in Bristol as part of their World Cup preparations over the summer, Ferguson was among the guest speakers invited to address the squad and Jones believes the message from the former Manchester United manager’s speech rubbed off on his players. “One of the things his teams were renowned for was Fergie time,” said Jones, who has been Ferguson’s guest at Old Trafford. “And the message was be patient and that’s what I enjoyed about our team today, there was no sign of panic and they kept on playing good rugby and the try came. It might have been easier if it had come a little bit earlier but it came and that’s a good sign.

“Whenever you get great people in, they make an impact. And you pick up one or two things. And that particularly resonated with me. I’m sure the players picked up on it. They’re just little tidbits of advice that help. Naturally there’s some urgency about what you want to do. But the fact is you don’t need to do anything different. You’ve got to be patient and just do the simple things over and over again. That showed today.”

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Maro Itoje, meanwhile, explained how Ferguson got his message across to the squad. “A lot of the time when the pressure’s on – with Fergie time – he [Fergie] said: ‘Don’t shoot. When the pressure’s on, don’t shoot, you’ll find a way to get into a better scoring position. He didn’t like guys shooting outside the box when the pressure is on. I think we can take a lot out of that. When the pressure is on, it’s not about the elaborate play, it’s not about the 50-50. It’s about doing the right thing.”

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Against the USA England will again be expected to clinch a bonus-point victory against the side ranked 13th in the world, two places above Tonga. England have a short turnaround with the squad heading to Kobe on Monday with only one training session, on Wednesday, before the match. Jones is expected to change the vast majority of his starting lineup as a result.

For the USA it will be their first match of the competition. “I know they’ve been down in Okinawa and they’ve had a two-week prep, so they’re going to come out all guns blazing,” added Jones. “It’s going to be like 15 Donald Trumps out there, so we’ll have to be on our job, because we know they’re going to give it everything they’ve got, just like Tonga did. We don’t need to make statements. World Cups aren’t about statements. They are about progressing with an aim in mind and being at your best when you need to be at your best.”