Why is the World Cup the be all and end all?

I read comments today by Newcastle Falcons coach that, should England win the 2023 World Cup, then the RFU may want Eddie Jones to stay on as England’s head coach.

Quite how this fits with the RFU’s “Project Everest” is one thing, but the suggestion that England winning the World Cup (however unlikely that may seem at the moment) would somehow erase the team’s abject performances in the 2021 and 2022 Six Nations, is a little alarming.

This is, of course, the narrative being promoted by Jones – that England are on the right track, heading in the right direction, that we should all forget how poorly the team is currently playing, that all will be ok come the World Cup. 

But should this be the case? Should we be satisfied with abject mediocrity year on year based on the promise of “jam tomorrow”?

Only one team can win the World Cup in 2023. Could it be England? Well, I suppose it is possible. A favourable draw means that anything less than a semi-final place would be a disappointment. But, even if Jones can get England to peak in 2023, winning the trophy will be fiendishly difficult. The only time England have previously won the trophy they were the world’s number one ranked team and tournament favourites and it was still a mighty close thing. 

And what if England were to claim the Webb Ellis Cup next year? Well, of course I would celebrate as much as the next Englishman, but would it mean that successive lowly finishes in the Six Nations were worth it? I get that there is a four year World Cup cycle, but the Six Nations is not, or at least it should not be, treated as a development tournament. Winning a Grand Slam – as England did in 2016 – is, or should be, regarded as a huge achievement. England almost did it again in 2017 but, let’s be honest, have not really come close since.

As far as I can see there are two possibilities. Either:

- England are just a bit of a mess currently and Eddie is using the promise of “it’ll be all right on the night” as a means to deflect from the team’s current malaise; or

- Eddie genuinely has a plan that will see England lift the World Cup in Paris next year and that he sees sacrificing Six Nations titles as an acceptable means to an end.

Deep down I suspect the former, but what is concerning is that the RFU (and to some extent the English rugby public) appear to have bought into the latter hypothesis.

I don’t think this is going to end well.

Total Flanker – the older I get, the better I was