World Cup pain will never leave us, says Jones

‘Bad coaching’ caused England defeat in final Furbank and Ewels earn starts against France

Tomorrow will be exactly three months since England’s World Cup final defeat by South Africa. The passage of time may have helped ease the pain, yet Eddie Jones claims it has left a scar that will never leave him, nor his players.

For that reason, Jones concedes, it is pertinent that the healing process starts as quickly as possible, beginning tomorrow with the Guinness Six Nations opener against France at the Stade de France.

“I don’t think you ever get over it, you carry it with you but it’s how you deal with the scar,” said Jones, who also experienced a World Cup final defeat when he was Australia head coach against England in 2003. “It’s a continual learning phase. I just showed the leaders an example of bad coaching which I was responsible for in the World Cup final.

“I showed them a clip of Nick Saban, the best university coach in American football. His team [Alabama] are in the final of the national university championship and they take a field goal. They’ve never practised it, so when it falls short and the opposition attack, the defence stand there and watch. By the time they move, they’ve been outflanked and concede a 109-yard touchdown. Bad coaching. That was my responsibility in the World Cup, I coached the side badly. So, that scar is always going to be there and all you can do is every day try and coach a little bit better.”

Jones has been hard on himself since the final but it is an issue, too, for the players. Unlike Jones, they have had the distraction of a return to club rugby since Japan, and, for the Saracens contingent, the nightmare of the salary-cap scandal.

But Owen Farrell, the captain and the most famous Saracen of all, insists he is ready to embrace a new era. Farrell is looking forward, not back but, like Jones, concedes that concept will be harder for others to embrace. “It is completely new,” said Farrell of this Six Nations campaign. “That [World Cup] is done. It will be more difficult for some than others to not look back at it, or say ‘what if?’ But it is done. All we can do now is focus on what is coming up on Sunday.

“Anything can help. It is up to you to use it in the right way – but that would have been the case whatever the result. You have to use it in whatever way you see best to move forward and get the best out of what we are doing now.”

Jones has freshened up his selection for the latest manifestation of Le Crunch. There is a debut for Northampton’s form player George Furbank at full-back, a bold selection following Anthony Watson’s calf injury, as the more straightfor

ward option would have been to switch Elliot Daly back from the left wing to his World Cup starting place at full-back.

The 23-year-old Furbank has earned his chance, however. Just two years ago, he was on the fringes at Northampton but appears to have made a significant impression since his call-up to the squad.

“He is very calm under the pres- sure he has been put under in training,” said Farrell. “He has thrown himself into the environment straight away. It’s not taken him two or three weeks, waiting for him to come out of his shell.” Jones said Furbank’s point of difference was his “great positional sense”.

“Some guys brought into this squad will take 12 months before they play, some guys might take 18 months,” said Jones. “But we feel that he is ready to go. Every player that comes in, their adaptation to international rugby is a product of how they are coached at a young age. And he is ready to go.”

So, too, is Tom Curry at No8, despite starring for England as a blindside flanker at the World Cup. Courtney Lawes comes into the back row on the flank. It is a sign that Jones wants to play, particularly up front, with more pace.

Switching from open side to No 8 is not without its challenges, but Curry has already proved himself to be adaptable and rugby-smart.

There is a deserved chance, too, for Charlie Ewels to make an impact from the start, edging out George Kruis for a place in the second row. The omission of Mako Vunipola is perhaps the most intriguing selection. Jones said it was with a view towards the six-day turnaround to the Scotland game. Yet, given England’s woeful scrummaging in the final, one wonders if it should be interpreted as a gee-up from new forwards coach Matt Proudfoot. Joe Marler will bring a welcome ballast to the scrum.

England should have too much power and wherewithal for a side clearly selected with a view to the next World Cup. Jones is demanding more instant rewards. “You want to be motivated for success and that is why we want to play rugby that stops the nation,” he added. “When we play we want the nation to stop because we want to play with such a ferocious spirit that the opposition don’t know where to go.”

Tomorrow’s game will tell us if, in this new era, England are heading in the right direction again, scar or no scar.

‘We want to play with such ferocious spirit that the opposition don’t know where to go’