England head coach Eddie Jones has admitted he made a mistake not freshening up his team for the World Cup final.

The Red Roses failed to back up their sensational semi-final win over New Zealand in the showpiece as they were beaten 32-12 by South Africa.

Jones believes a couple of tweaks to personnel, after a hectic period during the tournament in Japan, could have made all the difference against the dominant Springboks.

“I haven’t watched it and I probably won’t watch it,” the Australian told the Daily Telegraph.

England were well beaten in the final
England were well beaten in the final (Ashley Western/PA)

“But I know in my head where we could have probably made improvements. One area was that I probably made a mistake in terms of selection.

“That’s all with the benefit of hindsight, but I should have refreshed the team for the final.

“Apart from that, it was one of those days. Sometimes they start the game brilliantly and things come off for them.

“We started the game a little bit off, lacking a tiny bit of energy because we’d played four big games in a row. That’s the reality of it – we just came unstuck.”