Missed chance will define Jones’s England era but timing of his departure was wrong | Luke McLaughlin

Beating the All Blacks in 2019, losing the final and his untimely dismissal leave Eddie Jones wondering what might have been

Of all the things Eddie Jones said during his seven years as England coach, and there were plenty of them, one particular idea seemed to strike a jarring note.

It was in the immediate aftermath of England’s masterful victory over the All Blacks in the 2019 World Cup semi-final, when they were one second-half lineout error away from “nilling” the greatest rugby team on the planet. Jones was bubbling, quite rightly, after witnessing the plan he had lovingly constructed transformed into reality in such dominant fashion.