Best days lie ahead for this England team despite World Cup final flop

"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.\n\nWhatever 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.\n\nIt 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."

“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.

Warren Gatland, New Zealand"

t 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.