It is the abrupt finality of World Cups that makes them so brutal. As the Springboks danced beneath a shower of golden ticker tape, celebrating a victory which will resonate far beyond Africa’s rugby pitches, England’s players stood silently in the shadows trying to rationalise what had occurred. It may take a while because Saturday’s final was among the more disappointing endgames in red-rose history.
Whatever happened to the likely lads who left New Zealand looking equally glassy-eyed and helpless on this same stretch of turf the previous week? Where did all their oomph go when it mattered? What was the invisible virus that seemed to have drained legs and dulled minds, even before the concussed Kyle Sinckler’s unfortunate early departure? Even Eddie Jones, who has an answer for everything, seemed baffled.
Huge credit, clearly, needs to be given to South Africa who, by contrast, were obviously galvanised by the occasion. Plenty of teams would also love to be in England’s position, with a silver medal to reward four years of sweat-soaked sacrifice. And yet. Mention the word Yokohama to an English player or supporter for the foreseeable future and there will be an instinctive wince about what might have been.
It will be the same for Jones, who instead of being crowned master of the rugby universe has lost two World Cup finals as a head coach. He could only shrug his shoulders. “I’ve been coaching 23 years, it happens periodically. You think you’ve got a team right and ready to go and for some reason they don’t perform to the level you expect. Why? I’ve spoken to a lot of experienced coaches about it and everyone says the same thing, you just don’t know. You’re better off just putting that game to the side and getting on with it.”
Maybe, but Warren Gatland’s cautionary words following the All Blacks match suddenly felt prescient. “We have seen in previous World Cups that teams sometimes play their final in semi-finals and don’t always turn up for a final,” murmured the Wales coach. “It will be interesting to see how England are next week.” Top coaches like Gatland know from bitter experience that rebooting a side after a huge victory is not as reliably straightforward as it should be.
It certainly did not help that England arrived at the stadium barely an hour before kick-off, some 25 minutes late, after underestimating the traffic from their Tokyo hotel. They were late for the coin toss and played catch-up all night. A World Cup final is not the moment to be mentally still lacing up your boots as the game kicks off.
Quite how injury-free one or two key men were is another nagging imponderable. Jonny May did not look the same player after tweaking a hamstring against Australia in the quarter-finals and several others emptied the tank so completely against the All Blacks they were running on the fumes. At this rarified level, games hinge on tiny margins and a highly motivated, hard-core Springbok pack took full advantage.
There is no particular shame in that; South Africa were so dominant and secure within the rigid framework of their physical gameplan it is hard to imagine anyone would have denied them on this particular day. Essentially they did to England what Jones’s team had done to New Zealand and what the All Blacks had done to Ireland. Rugby has always been a momentum-heavy game but good sides who take an early grip are now increasingly hard to overhaul.
And how many people were unequivocally tipping England to win the tournament before it started? In the final analysis their campaign panned out almost exactly as might have been anticipated: spells of brilliance interspersed with a frustrating tendency to take their foot off the gas. Jones suggested his players had overcome that precise problem after their 38-38 draw with Scotland at Twickenham in March but it would appear there is work still to do.
The mind also rewinds to the Randolph Hotel in Oxford on the last day of February 2018. The previous Saturday England had been unceremoniously beaten by Scotland at Murrayfield. On the train down to Manchester after the game England’s coach had been abused by drunk fans and was still in contemplative mood. “I’m not a magician, mate,” he said, using the All Blacks’ long wait for a World Cup success under Graham Henry as an example of the need for patience. “It took New Zealand eight years to fix it – we’re trying to do it in four so everything’s a bit more difficult for us.”
Twenty months later the national side are in much rosier shape and certainly more fulfilled than when they bowed out in the 2015 pool stages. No one will be remotely keen to play them in the 2020 Six Nations – they kick off against France at Twickenham on Sunday 2 February – and there is self-evidently further room for growth. The majority of the squad will still be around for the 2023 World Cup in France and Sinckler, Maro Itoje, Owen Farrell, the Vunipola brothers, Jamie George, George Ford, Henry Slade, Elliot Daly and Anthony Watson could all have 80 caps plus by then.
Whether Jones will still be around urging them on in 2023 remains the subject of talks between him and Bill Sweeney, the Rugby Football Union’s chief executive. He is already teasing the media – “You’re so lucky because you’ve got me for another two years, guys. How good is that?” – but a number of his coaching assistants will be moving on. Nor is the conveyor belt of young talent as richly stacked with obvious world-class potential as the rapid rise of Tom Curry and Sam Underhill has latterly made it look.
There is no guarantee for the RFU, in other words, that four more years of the demanding Jones will yield a golden pot at the end of the rainbow. France, as hosts, will be strong, the Springboks have now rediscovered their mojo and the All Blacks will be hungry for revenge. Relevant or not, South Africa’s triumph under the super-smart Rassie Erasmus also again ensured that no nation with a coach from overseas has won a World Cup.
The outstanding job Erasmus has done in rebuilding the Springboks within two years, assisted by his inspired choice of captain and the unifying motto Stronger Together, underlines that hiring a big name is not always the answer for a union wanting to beat the world. More significant is the strength of the bond between the team and its public; the powerful energy generated can be as crucial as tactical guile.
Jones, by his own admission, is not a magician and England, as the final proved, have no divine right to fairytale endings. Equally, though, the 2019 squad are mostly young. It will be scant consolation right now but their best days still lie ahead.