Phil Vickery: 'There is absolutely no reason why England can't win the Rugby World Cup'

I’ve always been a fan of the World Cup. I played in three of them and had my fair share of success. Over three tournaments, I won 13 of the 16 games I played in, and funnily enough, only lost to the Springboks. Now I wouldn’t have said that in 1999 when Jannie de Beer was sticking five drop-goals over my head in the quarter-finals.

When you are playing, you judge yourself by results in the big tournaments and pitting yourself against the best players in the world. That’s what the World Cup does. Winning the thing is about getting through it, even enduring it because you have a choice. You can either use it as a springboard to do something or let it eat you up.

In the summer before that first tournament, my second cap had been a 76-0 loss to Australia on the ‘Tour of Hell’ in 1998 but I did alright out. It made me think, ‘What do I want to be known as?’ What am I about? It was a reckoning of sorts; a defining moment in my career.

I was 23 at that first tournament and it felt like barely anybody outside rugby really knew it was on. It’s funny what you remember. When it came to the quarter-final in Paris, the farmer in me remembers seeing a big sign saying, ‘Buy British Beef’, so I was thinking, ‘go on the boys’, because I’d grown up in Cornwall at a time when we were fighting French fisherman off the Cornish coast, with ports being closed and suchlike. It fired me up a bit but that knockout loss taught me what being the ‘best in the world’ meant and the reality was I wasn’t as good as I thought I was, and neither were England.

The lead-up to a World Cup is so important and Eddie Jones’ England team will know that. In the summer of 2002, I captained an understrength England in Argentina and we beat them down there. It was one of my proudest moments. Winning became a bit of a habit. By the following summer, we were on a roll. We beat New Zealand with a six-man scrum in their own backyard and to top it off, Australia in Melbourne. Then it was back into one of the most intense training blocks I’d ever been involved in and back out to Oz and off we go. What do I remember about the final? Well, forget the referee, the tries and the extra-time. The one thing that will always stick in my mind was walking out into the Olympic Stadium and that sea of white and red. It was mind-blowing. I couldn’t believe the support we had on the other side of the world. Soon after the whistle, I phoned my mum and said, ‘You were the person who drove me all around Cornwall, from Bude to Redruth, twice a week, travelling up and down the county for trials and all over the country, I cannot thank you enough’. You see, in those early days, it was never about playing for England and becoming a World Cup winner. The help I had from friends and family was solely to facilitate something I was passionate about. The journey of 2003 started when I first picked up a rugby ball. It wasn’t just about those six weeks out in Australia.

Coming home was unforgettable. The open-bus parade, the visit to the Palace, the trip to No 10; none of that would have happened were it not for a World Cup. We hope we inspired young kids to take up sport and put rugby on the map. It was bloody spectacular and to my mind, the moment rugby hit the mainstream. I know, it will probably always have that private school reputation – whatever that may be – but I’m from Kilkhampton in North Cornwall. There’s no airs and graces about me and I’m extremely proud of that fact; proud of my spirit, my passion and where I come from. Even today, if I’m talking about the business of sport, you have to have that drive.

My final World Cup bow came in 2007 and boy was that a rollercoaster tournament. From the depths of that 36-0 Pool loss to the Boks, to the highs of Marseille in the quarter-finals, it was an incredible experience. The Wallabies were outright favourites, while we were plodding, but the fans and atmosphere got us going. In knockout rugby, it’s all about 80 minutes and we fronted up. We bloody done ‘em. One of my favourite bits after was the Aussies hadn’t booked their flight home and they couldn’t get home. Classic.

The more emotional final came against France in Paris. We’d beaten Les Bleus in 2003 in the semi-finals and I remember Fabien Galthie telling me, ‘You stole my Rugby World Cup’. He’s such a good guy, Fabien. It was his time and I wouldn’t have begrudged him it.

In the 2007 semi-final, the lovely thing for me was walking down the tunnel and seeing Raphael Ibanez. Rafa was a hero to me, having played with him at Wasps. I remember in the tunnel thinking, ‘F**k me, right then, you f****s’. Paris was bouncing and, I thought, it’s ‘do or die’ here and if we go down, let’s go down in a blaze of glory. There were some unbelievable individual performances. Andrew Sheridan was a bloody man mountain. Josh Lewsey was electric and the intent, determination and grit shown meant we were in another World Cup final.

Before that final, I looked around the changing room and the physios were almost running out of tape. Martin Corry looked like a mummy, he was so trussed up. Looking back, it was a game too far. I take nothing away from South Africa. We can talk about Mark Cueto’s left boot until the cows come home but they deserved it.

I remember standing on the field afterwards, after the medals were handed out, and looking across to see John Smit with the World Cup. I thought, ‘We’ve had a little journey here, we’ve fought to retain our trophy’ but at the same time, when I watched him with it, I thought if there’s anyone I didn’t mind giving it to, it’s him. He’s a top boy and played the game in the right manner. He was strong, aggressive but never dirty.

Hosting a World Cup in France 16 years later will be magical. What the French do better than anyone else is get behind sport. Rugby there is a huge deal. Sure they can get on the back of their team but my God they are all in. It’s relentless and for the fans, they have the cheeses, the wines, I could go on. It’s going to be on another level, a perfect recipe for a Rugby World Cup.

As for England’s chances a year out. What they need is consistency, because performance-wise, it’s been up and down. Saying that, there will be bumps in the road. Right now, it doesn’t matter who you are, you’re not going to dominate the world game. I don’t say that to sit on the fence but look at The Rugby Championship or the Six Nations, it’s never been as competitive.

As a rugby fan and someone who genuinely tries to promote the game, I know fans either love or loathe Eddie Jones, but the guy I know is a good bloke. He’s a rugby man who wants to bloody win things. You can argue over whether he’s picked the right team or not but we’d do that whoever was in charge.

England didn’t play particularly well in the summer but I tell you what, if you lose your opening Test match in Australia and then go on to win the series, well that takes some doing. You can talk about detail, systems, plays, but the results showed this England side has some ticker. You have to go to places that coaches can’t make you go, where it’s dark and dingy. The coaches give you the tools but you’ve got to go there, no one else. They showed real guts and determination.

I’ll always keep an eye on the front row and I think it’s important Ellis Genge and Kyle Sinckler will be together at Bristol this season. The club need to look after them, but looking longer term, we’ve got some really good props coming through like Bevan Rodd and Will Stuart, and you still have the old boys Mako and Joe Marler who can do a job. Ellis, especially, has been inspirational and there’s no doubt in my mind that he’s in that top echelon of world-class prop forwards. Kyle has had a bit of a difficult patch with injuries but by the sounds of it, he’ll be recharged and ready to go. Saying that, what I do know is it won’t be about one individual, it’ll be about the collective, as they’ll all be called upon. There is absolutely no reason why England can’t win the Rugby World Cup and we can say the same for France, Ireland, South Africa and New Zealand. You have to start believing it or it won’t bloody happen.

A year out, this tournament will sneak up on us. Between Covid, the cost-of-living crisis, the war in Ukraine and the chaos in politics, before you know it, we can suspend reality for a bit and suck up the wonderful game of rugby. When I’m at the rugby, nothing else matters, boy. It brings people together. It will be a tonic for the whole game.