Jones has his mojo back but the

New ideas have helped head coach to reinvent England and bounce back from catastrophe The head coach has made England more likely World Cup winners than at any point in his reign

Arule of modern sport is that when the results go badly south, the coach does, too. There is no coming back. Eddie Jones has defied that universal law by making England seem more likely World Cup winners than at any point in his reign. Managers everywhere will cheer his resurrection.

On the corresponding day 12 months ago, England beat Wales 12-6, then imploded with defeats by Scotland, France, Ireland, Barbarians and South Africa – twice. The end of Jones’ reign was sketched out by catastrophists.

He was a two-year storm that had blown itself out. His players were disengaging. Jones had flogged them senseless on the training ground. Would he even make it to Japan? Could the Rugby Football Union afford to sack him – and could it face the shame?

Across all the big sports, you will find few examples of a coach losing his way halfway through a four-year cycle and then refinding it. Either Jones was not washed up in the first place or things have changed: new ideas, new coaching staff, fresh names on the team sheet. There is certainly plenty of that, with reinforcements pouring forth in the autumn series, Manu Tuilagi returning from a debenture seat in the treatment room and Jamie George, Kyle Sinckler, Tom Curry, Sam Underhill and Mark Wilson stepping up – while Jonny May has completed his graduation to world-class finisher with an all-round game.

“Jones has got his mojo right back,” said Sir Clive Woodward on ITV. As England’s only World Cup-winning coach, Woodward knows the highs and lows of managerial prestige. Woodward survived a salutary World Cup quarter-final exit in 1999 and fell short in Grand Slam deciders. But he rose again to construct world champions in 2003 before losing his aura with England and then the British and Irish Lions.

“The last two games have been amazing,” Woodward said. “I gave them 10 out of 10 in Ireland. Today has been 9½.”

Nine and a half, against a parodic France side who went 16-0 up on Wales last week and then conceded 68 points in 120 minutes in Paris and Twickenham, scoring only eight of their own along the way. Le Crunch needs renaming. Le Mismatch works less well, but was more accurate in this 44-8 England win, in which the French forgot to include a backstop. Their nonexistent last line of defence was an invitation to May to inflict havoc, and to Owen Farrell to hurt them with incisive kicks. Seldom, in the Six Nations era have a team been so poorly constructed and the benefit, for England, was that Jones was able to add a crushing home win to last week’s victory over the Grand Slam champions in Dublin.

“Sinckler, Wilson, Curry,” Woodward said, reeling off names. “Three new players, new into the team, they’re the ones that are standing out today. When the game stops they’re the ones riling players up.” And when Sinckler slapped France’s Arthur Iturria on the head