Good morning, world champions.

It’s tough not to have a soft spot for English coach Eddie Jones, and that feeling is clearly mutual.

Whilst some UK-based ex-players had a rather salty reaction to the Springboks’ victory, Eddie was full of praise for our boys.

His affinity with South Africa actually dates back to the 2007 Rugby World Cup, when he coached the Springboks to glory alongside Jake White and Allister Coetzee.

For an idea of just how popular Eddie was with that squad, read this story about how Bryan Habana and the team came together to make sure he was given a Springbok blazer.

The English coach and his team threw everything they had at the Springboks on November 2, but they were no match for a team that mastered their gameplan on the day.

Now, in excerpts from Jones’ new autobiography,  Eddie Jones — My Life and Rugby, he has opened up about how his team prepared for the final, and where things went wrong.

Below from TimesLIVE:

He admits finals “can make you do strange things”.

“You can sometimes find yourself jumping at shadows or second-guessing decisions. I have been guilty in the past of working the players too hard in the build-up to big matches. But less is usually more when you’re about to play a fourth major southern hemisphere team in five weeks. We had beaten Argentina, Australia and New Zealand in successive games. South Africa are the most brutal opposition, and so it was felt right that we gave the players more time to recover from what had been an exhausting few weeks,” Jones wrote…

“There is also the psychological challenge after the kind of big win we achieved against the All Blacks,” Jones asserts in his book.

“While we played well, I thought the analysis was a bit over the top. Everyone was slapping us on the back, saying how fantastic we were, how it was the best ever performance by an England team and the best ever win at a World Cup. The praise was everywhere. The challenge is to bring the players back to reality. Bring them down to lift them up again.”

Jones says he believes the team’s preparation was solid, and that they did all they could to be ready for the Green Machine in the week leading up to the final.

When he realised the Boks were going to emerge victorious, he speaks of a sense of ‘dread’ washing over him, according to Stuff:

“Sure as night follows day, those who threw bouquets and went completely over the top in their praise of our win over the All Blacks one short week ago will grab the pitchforks, light the torches and demand immediate answers. They will talk of ‘failure’ and rail against my selections and the game plan that didn’t work. It’s a necessary and important part of the job but, trust me, it’s exhausting.

“True to form one of them suggested later that we choked, and I snapped. I was having none of it. Our players didn’t choke. We were beaten by a better team on the night. I often wonder who marks their homework.”

Even though he knew the backlash to the loss was going to be immense, with the English press running wild in the days that followed, Jones said he still managed to take some consolation in the fact that Siya Kolisi lifting that trophy meant so much to our country.

I mean, how can you not appreciate this sentiment?

“In our misery we watch the World Cup being presented to the Springbok captain Siya Kolisi,” wrote Jones.

“I’d caught some of what he said after the match over the public address system. I heard him speak of the example this victory could set his country. Here is a symbol of what can be achieved when people work together.

“South Africa’s first black captain, a young man from the townships, who had little food to eat as a boy and who had sat in a shebeen to watch our World Cup victory in 2007, now holds up the greatest prize in rugby. It’s a powerful symbol of progress for South Africa. A part of me is pleased for Siya and for South Africa. I sincerely hope it makes a difference.”

Hats off to you, Eddie.

You earned that Springbok blazer in 2007, and you’ve earned the respect of rugby fans around the world with your conduct post-World Cup final.

Oops, how did this video get here? Oh well, one more time:

[sources:timeslive&stuff]