Monday 4 November 2019 17:35, UK
Eddie Jones had no explanation for England's failure to fire in their 32-12 Rugby World Cup final defeat by South Africa on Saturday.
Seven days after the memorable and comprehensive semi-final victory over New Zealand, England were outmuscled at the scrum by the Springboks after Kyle Sinckler was forced off early on with a head injury and struggled to reach the same sort of highs as against the All Blacks.
Yet although he could not put a finger on what went wrong for his team, head coach Jones put the defeat against the Springboks in Yokohama down to simply being beaten by a better team on the day.
"I don't know why we didn't play well today - it's something that happens in higher level rugby," Jones said.
"We thought our preparation was good, but this happens sometimes and it isn't a good day for it to happen. You can have the most investigative debrief of your game but they were too good for us on the day.
"We got in trouble in the scrum, we struggled in the first half, made some personnel changes in the second half and got back into it. We stayed in the fight and were in with a chance but for some reason South Africa were too strong for us.
"You can't doubt the effort of the players, they were extraordinary, they played with a lot of pride and passion and I don't know why we were caught short. Sometimes you never know."
"You can't doubt the effort of the players, they were extraordinary, they played with a lot of pride and passion and I don't know why we were caught short. Sometimes you never know."
Jones' team were the architects of their own downfall at times, playing fast and loose - and inaccurately - in the early stages and making a number of handling errors.
They gave away several penalties in their own half as well, with South Africa fly-half Handre Pollard kicking six of those to help keep the scoreboard ticking over in favour of his side to go with tries from wingers Makazole Mapimpi and Cheslin Kolbe.
Captain Owen Farrell, who kicked all of England's points via four penalties, was as similarly nonplussed as Jones.
"At the start they had a lot of ball in right areas and put us under pressure," Farrell said. "After the first half we came in thinking we hadn't fired a shot.
"In the second we felt like we were in game and got some momentum but not enough. We couldn't get a foothold but they are a brilliant side and played brilliantly today."
Jones has now lost two World Cup finals, having also been in charge of Australia when England triumphed in 2003.
He was understandably frustrated to have fallen at the final hurdle of his oft-stated aim of taking England back to the top of the game, but would not be drawn on what his own future holds.
"We didn't meet our goal of being best team in the world, but we are the second best team in the world and that is how we should be remembered," Jones said.
"We will be kicking stones for four years now and that's hard. But the only thing we're worried about now is having a few beers, then probably a few beers tomorrow and then probably a few more on Monday. Then we'll pull up stumps."
