I STILL GET FLASHBOKS
World Cup heartache haunts Jones every day
ENGLAND V FRANCE 2PM TOMORROW
EDDIE JONES leads England into the Autumn Nations Cup final confessing not a day has gone by in which he has not thought of losing the World Cup.
With Jonny May in the mood to add to his five tries in the past two meetings with France, Jones’ side start as hot favourites tomorrow.
But they carried the same tag into the World Cup final against South Africa 13 months ago and that really did not go to plan.
“How much have I reflected on that final? Probably every day,” said Jones, who recalls Anthony Watson to a team boasting 813 caps to France’s 68.
“When you lose a big final like that it stays with you for a long time. It doesn’t go away.
“You reflect and think ‘ I should have done that’ and ‘ would that have made a difference?’ You consistently hear criticism of what you have done. You never put it to bed. The result is what it is. We weren’t good enough. Even if you win the next one it never puts to bed that final. That is what drives you to keep wanting to get better.”
Billy Vunipola has been quick to point out there is no comparison between the World Cup and this hastily- arranged tournament. But he is not a coach, far less a rugby obsessive such as Jones, who sees every day as an opportunity to improve.
“If you don’t learn from it you don’t get another chance to play in a final,” said the Australian. “In retrospect, we probably underprepared for the World Cup final.
“We’ve had a bit of a ‘ peaking’ week, tried to attack it, not sit back. We changed the training and feel we’ve got the right balance in terms of physical and recovery work to make sure we are at our absolute best on Sunday.”
Nobody is hungrier than May, back at Twickenham for the first time since his spectacular try double against Ireland last month.
“In the past, games against France tended to be a bit faster and generally seemed more unstructured, which could contribute to more scoring opportunities,” said the wing.
“But I watched their game against Italy and they kicked the hell out of the ball – and we expect them to come with the same mentality. We’re desperate to put out the performance we know we can as we haven’t quite hit fifth gear as a team yet.
“The fact it’s a final, our last week together and there’s a couple of thousand people in the stand, there’s lots to be excited about.”