Twenty years on, they will be reunited in the same room this week. A little older, a good deal wiser, still instantly recognisable. The England squad who won the Rugby World Cup on 22 November 2003 may have long since hung up their boots but what they collectively achieved on that damp Sydney night continues to be largely undimmed by the passing years.
Johnno, Jonny, Lol, the Fun Bus … like characters from some imperishable sitcom there remains a timeless quality to the whole thing. Not least because no one from outside South Africa or New Zealand has done it since. England may have made a couple of subsequent finals but have never scaled the same rarified heights of teamship and combined class. The longer they stand alone as the only northern hemisphere winners, the more they stand apart.
