Eddie Jones said he was clueless to explain England’s World Cup final nightmare against South Africa but conceded the defeat will hurt for the next four years. Jones refused to address whether he would be at the helm for the 2023 World Cup, however, insisting his immediate focus was drowning his sorrows.

Jones’s side were comprehensively beaten 32-12 by South Africa despite going into the match as favourites. The Springboks dominated the scrum after Kyle Sinckler had to go off in the third minute having been inadvertently knocked out by Maro Itoje, and led 12-6 at half-time before tries in the second half from Makazole Mapimpi and Cheslin Kolbe pulled South Africa clear. Jones described the Springboks as “worthy winners”.

It was England’s second defeat by South Africa in a World Cup final, even though they had been widely tipped to emulate Clive Woodward’s 2003 winners, having demolished the All Blacks in their semi-final. After that match, the Wales head coach, Warren Gatland, had suggested England might have already reached their peak. Jones responded with a jibe about Wales’ failure to get to the final, but after Saturday’s defeat he admitted his old sparring partner might have had a point.

“That could be a factor, I’m not sure,” he said. “I don’t know why we didn’t play well today and this is one of the things that happens in high-level rugby. We thought our preparation was good but in the end it wasn’t because we didn’t play well. You can have the most investigative debrief of your game and you still don’t know what was wrong.

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“We’re going to be kicking stones for four years and it’s hard to kick stones for four years. We’re massively disappointed but at the same time I’ve got great admiration for what the players did. I can’t tell you how much respect I’ve got for them, how hard they’ve worked, how well they’ve played but we came short. But it’s not because of lack of effort.”

England arrived at the stadium 20 minutes late, having been stuck in traffic, but Jones dismissed suggestions that had any effect on the result. Jones refused to answer questions over his future – he is contracted with the Rugby Football Union until 2021 but the clamour for him to return to Australia is getting louder by the day.

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“The only thing I’m worried about now is having a few beers,” he said. “And after we have a few beers today we’ll probably have a few more beers tomorrow. And then probably Monday. And then maybe we have to pull up stumps.

“We’re the second-best team in the world. We didn’t meet our goal, our goal was to be the best team in the world, and we’re the second best-team. So that’s how we should be remembered.”

South Africa’s dominance in the scrum was such that they were awarded six penalties by Jérôme Garcès. England marginally improved with the second-half introduction of Joe Marler, who said: “It’s a tough ask when the pictures have already been painted and Jérôme decided that he was going to referee a scrum this week – which is good to know, bless his heart. And it is very hard to change that perception.”