England vs South Africa: Lawrence Dallaglio on how Eddie Jones’ men can eclipse the World Cup magic of ‘03

You’d think it wouldn’t get much better than the heights of 2003: a last-minute drop-kick, victory over Australia in their own backyard and a first taste of World Cup glory.

The sight of it all, from the moment the ball first left Wilkinson’s boot, is etched permanently into the memory of every English fan old enough to remember such a spectacle. The mad scramble that followed the restart (“The worst kick-off I’ve ever seen from England’s point of view,” Sir Clive Woodward later said). Will Greenwood at first receiver and on all fours. Mike Catt’s looping kick for touch. Wilkinson’s arms raised above his head, scarcely able to believe it all. Then the relief of the referee’s whistle and the rushing ecstasy. Surely that can’t be topped?

“Yes, 100%,” says Lawrence Dallaglio, addressing whether victory on Saturday would eclipse the success of the ‘03 team. According to the former international, England have the chance to reach new, previously unscaled heights. “If they win the World Cup, which they’ve got every chance of doing, it will probably be the best World Cup win ever,” he says. “To win a World Cup you need to win seven games, normally two of them tend to be against southern hemisphere opponents.

“But for them to do back to back, all three, I’m not sure what you could call that: a try nations? It’s pretty impressive, but they've got one more to go. It'd be an amazing achievement.

“If they go on and win it – and it’s going to be a very tough game, to have played the three southern hemisphere teams in consecutive weekends – I don’t think anyone could deny that they wouldn’t deserve to win the World Cup.”

The victory over New Zealand alone was worthy of a World Cup medal. Against all expectations, Eddie Jones’ men delivered a knockout punch that left the reigning champions dazed and bewildered under the Yokohama lights. While the possibility of an England victory was always on the cards, few anticipated the men in white to dominate in the fashion they did. Dallaglio, who was there that night in Sydney 16 years ago, believes it will go down in sporting history as “one of the all-time great Rugby World Cup performances”.

“I would almost go as far to say it’s the most complete England performance we’ve seen for quite some time if indeed ever – and I say that with a huge amount of pride,” he says. “It was breathless from start to finish. It’s not often that a team has a game plan and is able to go out on the pitch and almost from the first minute execute that game plan almost perfectly really.”

More than this, it was the reaction of the England players in the wake of victory which, for Dallaglio, reaffirmed the ice-cold mindset embedded within Jones’ squad. There was no animated celebrations or mass hysteria. Instead, it was subdued, calm. England will have known that the job isn’t done yet.

“What was really impressive is that at the final whistle yes of course they were pleased, there were big smiles, big hugs and everything, but they seemed to be fairly grounded and under control and recognise that it was a semi-final and not a final,” says Dallaglio. “That’s a good sign for this England team.”

Against South Africa, though, England take on a very different beast. Whereas the semi-final was all about nullifying the All Blacks’ cutting style of rugby, with its endless tricks and flicks, Jones and men must now rustle up a game plan to blunt the Springboks’ physicality without getting sucked into a draining arm wrestle. It’s a hard balance to strike, but Dallaglio is confident Jones has what it takes to draw the required performance from his men.

“In Eddie Jones they’ve got an immensely experienced coach,” adds the former England captain. “He’s been to the World Cup and won [as assistant coach with South Africa], been to the World Cup and lost. So he’s well qualified to present them with all the emotions and all the material that they need.

“Clearly they’ll look at South Africa in great detail, like they do with all their other opponents and come up with a way of playing. But it’s going to be tough. We can’t expect them to go out and do what necessarily they did to New Zealand. South Africa have proved they’re a very difficult side to beat. They’ve only conceded four tries in the whole tournament, two of them against the All Blacks in the first game. They’re a tough nut to crack.”

Should they get the job done, a place in the history books awaits for Jones and his men. But should they fall short, thereby following in the footsteps of the ’07 team, Dallaglio believe it doesn’t be the end for this particular cohort – as was the case in Paris 12 years ago.

Under Jones, England have slowly but surely developed into a world-class outfit, one that is teeming with elite quality and potential. There’s been plenty of bumps and lumps along the way, but such moments have collectively helped the side reach where they are today. The process of tweaking and refining and experimenting has handed Jones a squad that is now capable of delivering a new reign of English dominance in the sport.

“It’s exciting,” Dallaglio says. “This is a team that is still very much discovering how good they can potentially be. The exciting thing is that there’s a lot more to come from this England side.”