England vs South Africa: Eddie Jones challenges squad to win Rugby World Cup to lift Brexit gloom back home

England are one win away from being crowned world champions that could help provide a sweeping feeling of euphoria back home

Eddie Jones has challenged his players lift the nation out of the Brexit gloom by making the English public “as happy as they can be” with victory in this weekend’s Rugby World Cup final.

England can become two-time world champions if they can beat South Africa on Saturday in Yokohama, having dispatched Australia and the All Blacks along the way in what would arguably be the greatest achievement in the tournament's history.

Should Owen Farrell and his side find a way past the Springboks, they will have capped a remarkable turnaround from 2015, where under the guidance of Stuart Lancaster they failed to make it out of the pool stage despite being on home soil.

A lot of things have changed since that mentally scarring tournament – not least the way this England team has imposed on other sides at the global gathering – but the landscape of the support back home is also vastly different, with the uncertainty surrounding the United Kingdom’s future in the European Union continuing after the 31 October deadline was extended further.

Jones was due to announce his team for the final on the day the UK left the EU, but instead English fans will be able to focus on the build-up to the biggest rugby match in 16 years for the nation – and perhaps even more than that given what is at stake.

“I think it’s great,” said England coach Jones. “You give the country something to cheer about, and with Brexit at the moment they probably need something to cheer about. It’s a job of the team to make the country happy, they’re not as happy as they can be, because there is still a game to go.

“The crowds here generally at the World Cup have been fantastic and I thought our supporters on Saturday night were massively instrumental in getting us home. Their singing, their general support of the team were fantastic and we urge them to keep doing that.”

Jones used the mentality of England being written off to motivate his players against New Zealand, using his press conference appearance last week to claim no one in the room believed they stood a chance against the three-time world champions, and adding that the entire population of Japan would be behind Steve Hansen’s side due to their love of the All Blacks.

But with Hansen’s side condemned to the dreaded third-place play-off on Friday night against Wales, where will the home fans’ loyalties lie when Saturday night’s main event kicks off?

“I’m not quite sure mate,” Jones claimed. “All I know is we are excited about the prospect, we know the final comes with pressure but we are excited about handling that and we feel that’s an advantage we have got.”

Perhaps Jones was simply being modest, but some of the loudest cheers have come for him alone due to his history in leading Japan to their famous victory over South Africa in 2015. On top of that, England fans have been flooding to Tokyo this week in a desperate search for tickets with the number of searches for flights from London increasing week-on-week by more than 3,500 per cent, which is expected to give Jones’s side partisan backing inside the International Stadium Yokohama.

England fans have flooded flights to Japan in the hope of making the final (Getty) (Getty Images)

But that is no guarantee that England will triumph. Jones had not only the backing of the crowd but the added advantage of playing on home soil in 2003 when his Wallabies side came up short against Sir Clive Woodward’s England, and there are a few lessons for the week ahead that he has taken along his well-travelled journey that he hopes will ensure history falls his way this time around.

“It's always about doing less,” he explained. “We're at the end of a seven-week tournament so it's about focusing on what's going to have a significant impact on the game. It's not about doing everything, it's about doing certain things right, keeping the players fresh physically, keeping them fresh mentally, making sure they have enough to do off the field and just getting the balance right in preparation because coaches tend to think they've got to do more.

“It's making sure that the coaches’ discipline is right and we don't over-coach the players, and we allow them to find their own rhythms in the week. They'll be ready to go as you don't lack motivation for a World Cup final.

“We need to make sure they are physically fresh, they are mentally clear, they’ve got the game plan in their head, they know how they want to play and are aware of the challenges ahead. And we’ll be that on Saturday. That’s why we can be fairly relaxed this week, we’ve done a lot of hard work, we know what’s ahead of us, we know we can play to our strengths, we’ve got a pretty good idea of what we take away from the Springboks [against Wales], but again the point is they may come up with some different and we’ll need to adapt.

“We’ve got a pretty good idea of who the referee is going to be because there are only two left. We’ve played under both of those guys and we know that they are first class referees. We know that they’ll manage the game well and they’ll give all the obvious penalties and we’ll adapt to that.

“We’ve played at Yokohama Stadium, it’s a beautiful pitch, the support of the crowd is fantastic. We’re relaxed and we’re ready to go. The big thing for us is holding back the players this week, making sure they don’t go before siren rings.”