His idea that the world is against him is a red herring
18 other teams. Remember three weeks ago, guys, I was going to get the sack. I read all your articles. There was going to be blood on the walls at Twickenham. All the blood was going to be up here. You wrote it guys, come on. Let’s get real about this.’
OK, let’s get real. There was one article in one newspaper that mentioned, figuratively, blood on the walls at Twickenham and it was referring to the reckoning that would follow if England lost to Australia in the quarter-final.
In those circumstances, it was imagined, it would be difficult for the RFU to justify further investment in Jones and he could well be sacked. England won, magnificently, against Australia.
The scenario of Jones’s premature departure — he has two years on his contract — has not been mentioned since. It wasn’t after the final, either. Jones was not asked if he would be standing down, or if he might be sacked. Indeed, the only questions about his future concerned whether he would wish to extend his contract to take a young squad through to the next World Cup in France.
So, the idea the world is against him is a red herring. There are always scenarios linked to success and failure. All would acknowledge, the final aside, that this campaign has been positive for Jones and his team. If he wanted to be around in 2023, he could be. The RFU have made that clear.
Now the pool-stage exit. It is disingenuous to bring up the 2015 campaign as if it is the mark of where English rugby typically resided. Going out at the pool stage is a dismal failure so great it did leave blood on the walls.
The coach, his staff, the captain, large elements of the team were all cleared out as a result. The RFU appointed their first foreign coach and at great expense, so huge was the reaction.
Here is England’s record at the Rugby World Cup: quarter-finals, final, semi-finals, quarter-finals, winners, final, quarter-finals, OUT AT THE POOL STAGE, final. Spot the odd one out.
So Jones’s job certainly wasn’t to ensure England didn’t finish behind France and Argentina in Pool C and the 2015 anomaly does not reflect England’s traditional level; if we’re getting real.
Equally, when a man has been appointed as a coaching guru, the finest rugby brain available with a price to match, forgive us for looking to him for answers about
England’s display, following a crushing disappointment.
It’s just after the game. He’s consumed by the outcome. We get that. Jones said it took him four years to get over it, the last time he lost a World Cup final, and the defeat in 2003 won’t have immunised him for the hurt he feels over this one, but come on. Given the extraordinary 80 minutes against the All Blacks, nobody can have been happy with what they saw on Saturday, least of all Jones.
Everyone has theories but they want to know what the man at the centre of it thinks. Here’s what he thinks. ‘It’s sport, mate. We’ve got 23 individuals, they’ve got 23 individuals and the psychological level of teams is never constant.
‘We got caught today. They won a significant area of the game which was the scrum and then you are battling to get on the front foot. You’re batting here and it’s hard to score runs when the ball is up there all the time. That’s what happened today.
‘We couldn’t get out of it. We tried to break it and sometimes you lose your wicket. And it’s contagious. In a game which was nip and tuck, when a team has a scrum advantage, it’s difficult to stay in. South Africa scrummed well and that’s the game.’
Yet England’s scrum has been good, so that’s the mystery. And maybe it will only be answered when Jones forms his squad for the Six Nations. ‘I tell you what happens to teams: they evolve,’ said Jones. ‘Some guys will lose desire, some will lose fitness, some will get injuries, and there’ll be young guys coming through.
‘So this team is finished now. There will be a new team and that new team will be the basis of going to the next World Cup.’
Maybe Jones already knows many of the personnel. Maybe he hasn’t a clue. He might have all the answers, he might have none. The problem for English rugby is that, post-Yokohama, no one is quite sure what is true any more.