Oval Talk: England need answers

Eurosport - Tue, 02 Dec 13:03:00 2008

After four games and three heavy defeats, Oval Talk assesses Martin Johnson's England side and the challenges they face after an abysmal series of results that leaves them facing a difficult future.

England 2008 - 0

Nobody said it would be easy, but even the most pessimistic of England fans must concede that the November series was little more than a disaster.

An expected win over the Pacific Islanders was quickly forgotten as the Red Rose lost 28-14 to Australia, before the mighty Springboks inflicted a record 42-6 defeat at Twickenham.

It speaks volumes about the state of England rugby that a 32-6 loss to New Zealand was then greeted with an air of relief. Had the normally imperious Dan Carter not had an off day with the boot then England would likely have suffered another serious humiliation in front of their fans.

So not a good autumn series for Johnson and his troops. But should we be surprised? Experts are now trotting out the old lines that expectations were too high, that this England side are in the embryonic stage of their development and that there were never any indications that England would fare much better than they did.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing and yes we should not forget that England are a young and inexperienced side. But that does not excuse the backward steps Johnson's side appear to have taken in the past month.

All but disappeared are the traditional forward strengths once taken for granted, as well as the knowledge that England's finest will be as fit, if not fitter, than their opponents.

Johnson has shown his mettle by insisting he is even more committed to the England cause, but he faces some difficult decisions over the next few weeks with regards to his playing and coaching personnel.

Not quite so reassuring was the backing he recently gave his coaching team. As was the case with his predecessor Brian Ashton, the messages getting through to the current England squad appear muddled - someone needs to be accountable for this.

Clearly Johnson faces a busy next two months if he is to get England into any kind of shape to compete for the Six Nations crown.

Eurosport identifies a number of issues that Johnson needs to address urgently if he is to develop a team capable of matching Europe's finest, let alone the southern hemisphere giants.

The captain

An able leader off the pitch, Steve Borthwick clearly does not have the game or nous to lead his men on the field at international level. Johnson must act quickly to sever his ties with Borthwick, and invest in a player who will be an automatic choice for the next few seasons. Tom Rees, James Haskell, Danny Cipriani - why not? It's not as if candidates are jumping off the page, and all three of these tyros can play.

Forwards coach

One of the common links with the previous regime is forwards coach John Wells. Under Ashton, England produced two mighty, bludgeoning forward efforts to reach the 2007 World Cup final, but the game has moved on since then. Quick, clean ball - which entails an element of risk - is the way ahead and England have yet to grasp this. Johnson's players produce this for their clubs week in, week out. Why not for England? Wells must go and Johnson must consider bringing in a foreigner if necessary.

Fitness

Lawrence Dallaglio has said on more than one occasion that this current crop of England players cannot match the southern hemisphere when it comes to fitness. England struggled in the final quarter of their last three games when their opponents appeared in better shape. With fitness comes composure and the ability to make the right decisions as pressure builds. Johnson's 2003 World Cup winning side were the fittest in the world and that must be the bench mark for the current squad. Where are the Neil Backs and Johnny Wilkinsons of this generation, players who set extreme individual standards for the rest to follow?

Infringements

England conceded far too many penalties during the autumn and Johnson needs to stamp this out. Four yellow cards against the All Blacks was inexcusable, even if referee Alain Rolland seemed to have it in for England. England are clearly struggling at the breakdown, but they must also be 'educated' in when it is permissible to give away penalties and when it is not.

Selection

Johnson was right to give his charges an extended run and avoid chopping and changing in the manner of previous regimes. But several players clearly are not up to the task. As well as Borthwick, Johnson must jettison hooker Lee Mears, centre Jamie Noon and fly-half Toby Flood. Mears is too small and it is no coincidence England's scrum was turned over on more than one occasion. Noon does not have the soft hands or quick feet for international rugby, while Flood is no more than an able Premiership playmaker. Time to give Dylan Hartley, Shane Geraghty and Dan Hipkiss a chance - and James Simpson-Daniel, if he can remain fit for more than a few games. Why also have England been unable to get the best from the uber-athletic Tom Croft, or rampaging prop Matt Stevens?

Quick ball

Just take a look at Wales, or closer to home Harlequins, London Irish and Bath. All produce quick ball that allows them to play a high-tempo game. Pods of plodding forwards intent on retaining possession at all costs is not the way forward under the current ELVs. Just look at the effectiveness of scrum-half Danny Care when he has quick ball to work with at Quins. Defences currently find England too easy to play against.

The Red Rose

Much has been written recently about what it means to New Zealanders, South Africans and Australians to represent their country. Johnson needs to develop similar pride and ambition in those who wear the England jersey. England have reached the World Cup final on three occasions and won it once. This is a fine heritage and it needs to be hammered home to the players. Maybe a system of mentoring from recent England greats would help.

Terence O'Rorke / Eurosport

Comment 1 - 11 of 11

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  1. Ken F. What point are you trying to make? A: Like­ myself I presume that many people here may well have­ real experience as players, coaches or followers of the­ game, rugby is still a minority sport and rugby­ followers tend to be more boned up on the sport itself­ than, let's say, football. B: What would be the­ point of a blog if only people deemed­ "experst" or "officials" had a say?

    From John D, on Tue 2 Dec 9:41AM

  2. It is amazing that although we are unable to produce­ the goods, we have many experts who can write about­ the team. how many of the people that make the comments­ in this column have any coaching or managerial­ experience?

    From Ken F, on Tue 2 Dec 9:12AM

  3. Lets face it, there is little that can be done for­ English rugby except wait for a new generation of­ players to come through. In the forwards there are­ simply no world class locks around, no props other than­ the current encumbants, and even the much vaunted back­ row arent world beaters (yet). Similarly in the backs­ we see a mixture of the green and untested at half­ back, a giant black hole in the centre, and slightly­ flaky wingers without the physical attributes, skills­ or experience to compete with their battle hardened­ southern hemisphere counterparts. Fitness and­ conditioning is all very well, but you cant just­ whistle up natural born talent, and that is what­ England are missing at the moment. Last comment - those­ players who DO have talent, and the physical attributes­ to give opponents the hurry up (thinking Tait, Banahan,­ Hartley in particular) just arent being given the­ chance to play. Johnson needs to make the best of a bad­ job and start taking a few risks with his selections -­ because excuses that "these are the best players­ that we have" just dont wash!

    From john, on Tue 2 Dec 1:08AM

  4. theres no class in the present england team at the­ moment .
    but you still think that you have. you got a­ man in charge whos never managed a team.
    very good­ player but thats it a player not a manager

    From alan, on Mon 1 Dec 8:06PM

  5. Why all the talk about England bloody england there are­ three other rugby teams to talk about, and they all­ have a better chance of winning their next game, unlike­ england.

    From p.lloyd142, on Mon 1 Dec 6:38PM

  6. England need to play tight fast rugby, the 2nd phase­ ball is too sloppy and the front row look sluggish to­ me. They look a shoddy outfit at the moment. Come on­ lads, keep it tight and fast, good clean ball. Perhaps­ having Martin Johnson as coach does not help the­ backplay? No offence to Martin but it is a thought.

    From John D, on Mon 1 Dec 5:00PM

  7. The most poignant point of this article is the one­ about quick ball... All the other issues are relevant­ and well addressed but throughout the 6 Nations earlier­ this year and the recent internationals, England's­ ability to recycle and redistribute the ball to the­ running players has been sadly lacking. Danny Care has­ not helped with his ponderous dwelling over the ball­ when it has been there to pass, along with his habit of­ crabblng across the field several steps before making­ the pass - thereby closing down the space available to­ his fly-half and that of all his outside back line. The­ absence of clean, quick possession has meant that we­ have rarely been able to catch a defensive opponent on­ the hop, in the process of re-organising and realigning­ their personnnel. By the time the ball has come out and­ Danny Care has over-zealously checked and double­ checked that the backs are on the exact blades of grass­ they are supposed to be... the defence is set and­ raring to hammer into the England runners. We've­ made opponents' defences look good simply because­ we've not been able to exploit opportunities that­ have been there but quickly disappeared BECAUSE of the­ slow-ness of the possession.
    The points about the­ discipline and the fitness of the players were also­ well put across and the evidence was there for all to­ see. Though I also agree that referee Rolland did seem­ to be officiating with both eyes firmly focused on­ English transgressions - not balanced at all.

    From oyster250, on Mon 1 Dec 3:34PM

  8. Cipriani captain???? You must be joking.

    From mbees43, on Mon 1 Dec 3:29PM

  9. Rob Andrew must go.. he is a waste of space and done­ f-all in his current position.

    From Stuart, on Mon 1 Dec 2:42PM

  10. The summing up of the issues are put across well. The­ fact remains that England have 500,000 registered­ players yet we still seem to go through a roller­ coaster ride at the top level when world class players­ retire!
    Does this point to fundermental issues with the­ development of our players? Should the development not­ be through the clubs at grass route level and feed onto­ the development squads of our premier teams. Once our­ youth reach the senior education stage, many schools­ dictate when and who they play for, they instill­ different methods of coaching, in many cases, from­ PE'd staff who have little knowledge of the game.­ This does not take away the speacialist schools in the­ system who do have excellent set-ups and can offer the­ facilities to bring boys through. We only have to look­ at the Daily Mail cup each year to see how few of these­ schools there are though because the same names get to­ the knock out stages year upon year.
    To sum up; We­ should look at our grass root players and target them­ at a much earlier stage, train and allow them to gain­ the fitness levels required to play international rugby­ for 80 minutes and we may start to produce a similar­ player machine akin to the Southern Hemisphere.

    From athorrell, on Mon 1 Dec 2:14PM

  11. Agree with everything said here except the comments­ about Toby Flood. He is more than an able playmaker.

    From Aaron, on Mon 1 Dec 1:31PM
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