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

Eddie Jones (right) in 2019 with Steve Borthwick, then his forwards coach and now set to be his successor. Photograph: David Rogers/Getty Images,

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.