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The Eddie Jones message sent to crestfallen Red Roses

Eddie Jones - PA

England head coach Eddie Jones sent a heartfelt message commiserating with the Red Roses after their narrow loss to the Black Ferns in the Rugby World Cup final in Auckland.

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Hosts New Zealand ran out 34-31 winners despite trailing for most of the match against a England side who had to dig deep after Lydia Thompson was sent off after just 18 minutes for a head contact on Portia Woodman.

Simon Middleton’s side were hot favourites to win, having not lost a game in 30 coming into the final, but ultimately it wasn’t to be for the Six Nations champions.

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In the aftermath of the loss, men’s head coach Jones sent the following message from the England men’s team, who were preparing to face Japan in Twickenham: “On behalf of the England men’s team we’d like to send our commiserations and congratulations to Simon, Sarah and all of the Red Roses players and staff.

“We know how tough this moment is and it will be hard to feel the positives in the immediacy but they should be very proud of what they’ve achieved on the pitch and off it.

“They’ve played excellent rugby, had an unbelievable unbeaten run and are a really tight group.

“Back here in England we can feel the impact that they have made across the game; how many people are talking about them and enjoying watching them and they will inspire even more girls and boys to play rugby.

“They are excellent ambassadors for our great game and we look forward to seeing them go onwards from here, towards a home Rugby World Cup in England in 2025.”

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Red Roses captain Sarah Hunter spoke of how the team would not be defined by the loss.

“We’re as one. We win together and lose together. There is no blame culture in this team. We’re all accountable for whether we win or lose,” said Hunter, England’s most capped player. “We can be proud of the squad we have become. The girls left everything out on the field. Our backs against the wall for 60 minutes of the game. To be in with a shot of winning right at the end…

“This is a very special group and we can be immensely proud of what we have done as a team over these last eight weeks.

“One game doesn’t define you.”

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1 Comment
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Euan 739 days ago

It was good that the Red Roses lost, because it put out the message that rolling mauls are not the best way to win matches, and certainly not the most popular.

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JW 1 hour ago
'Passionate reunion of France and New Zealand shows Fabien Galthie is wrong to rest his stars'

Where? I remember saying "unders"? The LNR was formed by the FFR, if I said that in a way that meant the 'pro' side of the game didn't have an equal representation/say as the 'amateur' side (FFR remit) that was not my intent.


But also, as it is the governing body, it also has more responsibility. As long as WR looks at FFR as the running body for rugby in France, that 'power' will remain. If the LNR refuses to govern their clubs use of players to enable a request by FFR (from WR) to ensure it's players are able to compete in International rugby takes place they will simply remove their participation. If the players complain to the France's body, either of their health and safety concerns (through playing too many 'minutes' etc) or that they are not allowed to be part in matches of national interest, my understanding is action can be taken against the LNR like it could be any other body/business. I see where you're coming from now re EPCR and the shake up they gave it, yes, that wasn't meant to be a separate statement to say that FFR can threaten them with EPCR expulsion by itself, simply that it would be a strong repercussion for those teams to be removed (no one would want them after the above).


You keep bringing up these other things I cannot understand why. Again, do you think if the LNR were not acting responsibly they would be able to get away with whatever they want (the attitude of these posters saying "they pay the players")? You may deem what theyre doing currently as being irresponsible but most do not. Countries like New Zealand have not even complained about it because they've never had it different, never got things like windfall TV contracts from France, so they can't complain because theyre not missing out on anything. Sure, if the French kept doing things like withholding million dollar game payments, or causing millions of dollars of devaluation in rights, they these things I'm outlining would be taking place. That's not the case currently however, no one here really cares what the French do. It's upto them to sort themselves out if they're not happy. Now, that said, if they did make it obvious to World Rugby that they were never going to send the French side away (like they possibly did stating their intent to exclude 20 targeted players) in July, well then they would simply be given XV fixtures against tier 2 sides during that window and the FFR would need to do things like the 50/50 revenue split to get big teams visiting in Nov.

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