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More thoughts about England

Tuesday, February 8, 2022 7:49

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For the third consecutive Six Nations, England have begun the competition with a defeat.

Clearly this doesn’t bode well for any aspirations Eddie Jones may have had in terms of winning the Championship this year but in many ways he only has himself to blame.

Last year Eddie was criticised for selecting players – mostly from Saracens – who had played very little rugby and had no form to speak of and England were blown away by Scotland at Twickenham. The points margin was still quite tight, but it was a comprehensive defeat in all other aspects.

This year at Murrayfield it was different – although the Scots were the more dangerous looking team in possession, England largely bossed the game and engineered a winning position before letting it slip through poor decision making.

On the face of it, Eddie’s selections for this game were sound enough. You could argue a case for starting Dombrandt over Simmonds to take advantage of the Quins’ number 8′s symbiotic relationship with Marcus Smith, and personally I would have liked to see Jack Nowell start, but when the team was announced last week I was happy enough.

On reflection, however, and with the benefit of hindsight, I am not so sure. Upfront I am not sure what Jones could have done much differently given injuries to the likes of Hill and Lawes. Isiekwe didn’t quite convince at lock (although I would select him ahead of Ewels every day of the week) and Ludlam was probably the pick of the backrow. The issue was more about how the England pack played. Plenty of endeavour, plenty of possession, but not enough go-forward to give the backs space to play. If you are going to select Sam Simmonds then at least find ways of giving him line-breaking opportunities. Not one pick and go from the scrum, for instance.

Behind the scrum, however, was a different story. I get that Ben Youngs is experienced and is there to mentor his younger half back partner, but he’ll never be a scrum half for a fast, attack-based strategy. The centre partnership also didn’t work. Slade played ok and occasionally threatened the line but Daly – playing in his preferred position – made no impact whatsoever. Understandable, perhaps, given that he hasn’t played much at 13 in recent years, but outside him on the wing was Joe Marchant – a regular 13! And on the other wing was Max Malins – a fine footballer and excellent fullback – who, despite playing well, like Marchant lacked the out-and-out gas to convert half breaks into meaningful try-scoring opportunities.

That Eddie Jones values versatility is one thing, and understandable when finalising selections for a World Cup squad, for instance, but Scotland showed the value of having specialist players playing in their proper positions. Marcus Smith – like Finn Russell – is the type of player to win games of international rugby but in order to do so you do need to provide him with weapons and ammunition. I feel Eddie Jones failed to do so on Saturday.

And yet, and yet…England should have won. At 17-10 ahead and with 16 minutes to go Eddie Jones withdrew four of his most influential players, including Smith, and the game immediately swung Scotland’s way. I’ll save my thoughts on substitutions in general for another time, but it is clear they made an impact – and not in a good way – for England at the weekend.

And so, on to Italy, who will be buoyed by a more than half-decent performance against France and will scent blood. As a result I fear that Jones will select cautiously for Sunday’s game which is precisely the opposite of what he should do.

It will never happen in a million years but personally I would like to see something along the lines of:

15. Steward 14. Nowell 13. Marchant 12. Slade 11. Radwan 10. Smith 9. Randall 1. Genge 2. Cowan-Dickie 3. Sinckler 4. Itoje 5. Chessum 6. Ludlam 7. Curry 8. Dombrandt

Reps: 16. George 17. Marler 18. Heyes 19. Isiekwe 20. Simmonds 21. Quirke 22. Malins 23. Lynagh.

Does such a selection risk defeat? Yes, but rather that than to select conservatively and struggle anyway.

Total Flanker – the older I get, the better I was

Source: https://www.totalflanker.co.uk/2022/02/more-thoughts-about-england.html

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