Final blow haunts Jones

England’s coach reflects on the Cup decider that got away

EVEN as he stands on the cusp of one of coaching’s greatest redemptions, Eddie Jones still can’t forget about the one that got away.

Sixteen years later, Jones remains haunted by Australia’s heartbreaking loss to England in the 2003 World Cup final. Beaten by a Jonny Wilkinson field goal in the last minute of extra time, Jones has never got over that loss and missing out on the chance to redeem himself with his homeland.

Opening up for the first time about the devastating personal impact that loss had on him, Jones said it took him four years just to even realise he was still depressed.

“I didn’t realise what an effect it had on me until possibly 2007. You think everything is alright but you lose a World Cup final and it’s a difficult experience,” he said.

“I’ve experienced both and I know the difference you feel and if you don’t reflect really well, which I didn’t after the last World Cup, then you carry some things with you that aren’t always positive.”

Crushed by his sacking and the bitter fallout that ensued, Jones has since gone on establish himself as one of the World Cup’s greatest coaching success stories, but with other countries, not his homeland.

He was an assistant to the South African team that won the title in 2007 then he masterminded the greatest upset in the tournament’s history when Japan beat the Springboks in Brighton in the 2015 tournament. And now he’s taken England to tonight’s final in Yokohama, against South Africa.

Should England win, Jones will be revered as a coaching genius and enjoy all the accolades that will come from that, but it will never heal his heartache, even though he acknowledges it was the lessons he learnt from 2003 that have made him the best coach in the world today.