Even now, all these years on, I remember it vividly. World Cups do that to you. When you win them.
The journey, the highs and lows, the constant battle to stay in the moment and, yes, the fear, of coming up short.
It is easy now to distil our 2003 experience into a single freeze frame. Golden boy, golden shot, beats host nation with pretty much last kick.
It was an iconic finish to an epic final. Yet as the England boys preparing for Saturday’s final will tell you, an awful lot more goes into getting into position to finish the job on the biggest stage of all.
In our case we left home with expectation sky high. Nobody set foot on the plane not believing 100 per cent that we were going to win the World Cup. Nothing else would have done.
(Image: Getty Images)
England then were the best team in the world, ranked No.1 and while we did not play our very best rugby at the tournament everything was on track until we ran up against Wales in the last-eight.
At half-time we were behind and while we recovered to win there was an unease within the ranks. We were a team playing purely by rugby process, devoid of emotion.
Some senior players, of which I was one, told the coaches we needed to back off training, stop physically putting ourselves through the wringer and emotionally free ourselves.
(Image: Getty)
Rugby is a game of emotion and if you’re not charged you can’t hit the heights you need to. Physically and mentally we were tired from trying to do everything absolutely right all the time.
So I found it encouraging this week to hear Eddie Jones address this exact point when admitting “coaches tend to think they’ve got to do more” before emphasising the need not to over-coach and instead “let the players find their own rhythms”.
Our little chat enabled us to rediscover that. You only have to see the footage of Lawrence Dallaglio, tears pouring down his cheeks belting out the anthem before our semi-final, to know that.
(Image: PA)
France were the opposition. The same France that had celebrated like they had won the World Cup when beating us in a warm-up match. We knew then we had them.
And so to final week and that in-between period Owen Farrell and his team are experiencing just now. Where they are lucky is that they are in Tokyo, a massive city where it is relatively easy to lose yourself.
We were on the beachfront in Manly in a hotel besieged by well-meaning supporters. You couldn’t move for fans, there was no respite, nowhere to be.
(Image: Getty)
I wasn’t picked for the final but I prepared as if I was. This is no time for anyone to lose focus. Every day I kicked with Jonny, kept the routine exactly the same. Come game day that would pay off handsomely.
Never for one moment did I think we would not win but the Aussies wouldn’t go away and somehow we found ourselves closing in on the end of extra-time and the nightmare prospect of the final being decided by a kicking competition.
It was then about clear heads. One last opportunity to finish it. Quick lineout ball and we moved upfield. Still too far out to strike. Cue the bravest and, from an English point of view, surely greatest dummy of all time by Matt Dawson.
(Image: Getty Images)
Those extra metres made all the difference. And when his pass found its target Wilko did the rest.
Four years later England would reach another World Cup final and lose – to today’s opponents South Africa. Nobody talks about that game, save for Mark Cueto’s try that wasn’t.
That is the harsh reality of sporting life. It is why England were right not to get excited about beating New Zealand, even as emphatically as they did.
Lose on Saturday and it counts for nothing. Get the job done and those memories will be there forever.
