We will live with this pain for four years, says Jones
EDDIE JONES said his England players will hold the hurt from their World Cup final defeat against South Africa for years.
England lost a final for the third time in four attempts, suffering the biggest loss in the game’s showpiece match since Australia beat France 35-12 in 1999.
A shell-shocked Jones, who has two years left on his contract, admitted he had no answers as to why England lost.
‘It’s not a good day for it to happen,’ he said.
‘We’re going to be kicking stones now for four years and it’s hard to kick stones for four years.
‘You can have the most investigative debrief of your game and you still don’t know what was wrong. It just happens sometimes.
‘We’re massively disappointed but, at the same time, I’ve got great admiration for what the players did. I can’t tell you how much respect I’ve got for them, how hard they’ve worked, how well they’ve played — but we came short today. But it’s not because of lack of effort.
‘The only thing I’m worried about now is having a few beers. And, after we have a few beers today, we’ll probably have a few more beers tomorrow. And then probably Monday. And then maybe we have to pull up stumps.
‘We got in trouble at the scrum. We struggled, particularly in the first half. We made some personnel changes in the second half and got back into it but, again, South Africa were too strong for us.’
England’s preparation was disrupted as they arrived 25 minutes late to the ground. And, while they did not use that as an excuse, Henry Slade said: ‘Things happen. There was a lot of traffic.’
And the centre backed Jones to stay on as England boss. The Australian’s contract lasts until 2021, but his future is still yet to be definitively confirmed.
‘Eddie has been class for us,’ said Slade. ‘Look at where we were when he picked up and where he’s got us to. He’s done an unbelievable job.
‘When he first came in, he set out what he wanted to do and told us where he wanted us to get to. To be fair to the boys, they bought into it and believed in it the whole way.
‘We were just a bit short today, but I think, on the whole, he’s been a real positive for English rugby.’
Mark McCall, the Saracens director of rugby, is backing the club’s star man Owen Farrell to bounce back better and stronger for the defeat.
‘Owen is an incredibly strong person,’ said McCall. ‘He has led that group outstandingly well. He has had so much responsibility on his shoulders for so long now and has needed to remain incredibly focused throughout.
‘We will have to find out how he is feeling and what he needs. The same goes for all the World Cup players. We are going to give them as much space and time as they need. I will talk to them individually and see what is right for them. It may well affect our selection for European club matches.
‘Billy Vunipola has played a lot out there. It’s unrealistic to think these players can just come back and suddenly switch their focus to us.
‘It’s hard to know how these experiences, which are pretty tough and traumatic, will affect the players. Each one will react differently. They have had huge losses during their careers — on a different scale, of course.
‘This was a World Cup final and we lost two back-to-back club finals in 2014 and, for us, as a group, it was extremely painful. But it also ended up being the catalyst for better things. The good thing is they are young enough to go again if they want to.’