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Eddie Jones: How England's reaction to All Blacks victory proved to be costly in World Cup final

Joe Marler and Mako Vunipola celebrate England's World Cup win over the All Blacks. (Photo by Hannah Peters/Getty Images)

England head coach Eddie Jones believes his side received too much praise for their World Cup semi-final victory over the All Blacks, which ultimately cost them when it came to playing in the final a week later.

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The English stunned the rugby world with a stunning 19-7 win over the reigning champion, with their defensive fortitude and tactical nous enough to outshine the Kiwis and book their spot in the World Cup final.

However, Jones’ side couldn’t back that impressive performance up seven days later, as they fell to a formidable Springboks outfit 32-12 in Yokohama, the second-heaviest defeat in World Cup final history.

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In the lead-up to the match, the side were being compared to Sir Clive Woodward’s 2003 World Cup-winning side by British media, despite Jones’ team having not yet lifted the Webb Ellis Cup.

Writing in his new book My Life and Rugby, Jones spoke about his squad’s mindset leading into the Springboks clash, saying that he got it wrong in keeping his side’s feet on the ground after their victory over the All Blacks.

“There’s also a psychological challenge after the kind of big win we achieved against the All Blacks,” Jones wrote, according to The Times.

“While we did play well, I thought the analysis was a bit over the top. Everyone was slapping us on the back, saying how fantastic we were, how it was the best ever performance by an England team and the best ever win at a World Cup.

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“The praise was everywhere. The challenge is to bring the players back to reality. It changes the structure and narrative of the week.”

Jones also revealed that he made a mistake selection-wise for the final, saying he should have picked loosehead prop Joe Marler ahead of the New Zealand-born Mako Vunipola.

“I had been right against Australia and New Zealand but, as it turned out, in the biggest game of our four-year cycle, I got it badly wrong. Hindsight is a wonderful teacher,” he said.

Jones’ book is released on November 21.

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J
JW 28 minutes ago
'They smelt it': Scott Robertson says Italy sensed All Blacks' vulnerability

Even the 20/30 cappers did too I reckon.


IDK, I think Jordan has a limited life span in this side unless he can develop more to his game. Like you go on to mention, I think theyres more important things to worry about than the effectiveness of someone's extra strings, or secondary components to their game.


Bash backs are Fosters thing, and to a large part they've made it work. Theyre now one of the best teams in the world.


They boy's trucked it up a bit against Italy in the redzone, and against France, wasn't that effective without the right players probably.


Try and take a look at it this way. Dissapointed Havili and Blackadder were in the side? Havili despite clearly shown that he can't do what the team needs at 12 was kept on for the RWC. Back goes down and he brings in Blackadder who doesn't play. Refuses to drop Christie when he should and look who starts this season. Beauden Barret not playing well enough to keep his 10 jersey but we gotta keep him in the side. Weve only got one 8, we stuff developing another I'll just play Ardie every game.


This years team wasn't burdened overly with injuries but they were in every position Razor might have wanted to try and development, severely limiting options. I'm not defending Razor as there was also plenty of other opportunity to make up for it and he was a little gunshy, but I'm also not going to overly criticise him because he chose cohesion over a black slate.

How long are we going to keep blaming All Black failings on Ian Foster.

I think more and more people are on board with it being time to try alternatives, but then again, how would they have reacted to a loss against Italy? 😉

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