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New to Rugby Unplugged's 2015 RBS Six Nations coverage, we bring you weekly analysis on Stuart Lancaster's England Rugby, exclusively from journalist and Rugby Writer James While.
Twickenham, London - Saturday 21 March 2015
KO: 17:00 HT: 27-15 Att: tbc
T: Ben Youngs (2), Watson, Ford, Nowell (2), Billy Vunipola C: Ford (7) P: Ford (2) 
Haskell
T: Tillous-Borde, Nakaitaci, Mermoz, Debaty, Kayser C: Plisson (2) P: Plisson, Kockott
THAT was a match that rivalled anything seen at Twickenham in recent times. In tension, up there with the 2002 autumn tests, the 1991 RWC final, if not quite as important, and perhaps a performance that, whilst still suggesting there’s defensive work required to beat the best, alludes that England have turned a big corner.
England were quite simply magnificent in attack, intent and vision. Tries, running angles and line breaks appeared that many thought Northern Hemisphere sides were incapable of. George Ford was breathtaking in his vision and he orchestrated a back division that fundamentally wanted to have fun.
Paradoxically, England appear to have turned their game plan inside out; 12 months ago you had a side with the best setpiece and defence in the Northern Hemisphere; now the Rose have an electric attacking ambition, a questionable defence and an unsteady line out. This suggests progress in individual skill, but a retrograde step in team organisation, something that will be of huge concern to the coaches, but, as the team proved a year ago, something that is very fixable.
From the first minute, England’s power and line speed forced French errors. With players such as Jonathan Joseph in their ranks, England possess the pace to finish off any such gifts and within a minute or so, the outstanding Ben Youngs had smashed over for the opener.
England played a game tight on the gain line, with George Ford prepared to risk possession in favour of penetration.
Looking back at the match, this flatness caused havoc for the French but Ford will learn that playing flat also closes down his options as, for all his genius with ball in hand, his positional aggression cut down his kicking ideas. England reacted well to this second half, placing a receiver for defensive work between Ford and the ruck.
Handling errors too will be of concern. James Haskell, formidable in Cardiff, looks clumsy and inaccurate when forced to use the ball and not enforcing with his formidable bulk. England, with ball carrying locks now available, are sure to look to Tom Wood to shore up that ruck accuracy and add a world class line out option as the World Cup approaches.
Questions marks will also prevail over the openside wing defence; time and time again England got narrow through throwing men into the breakdown and reducing the personnel wide outside. It is imperative that both Nowell and Watson learn that defences play with 16 players and attacks play with 15. In short, the touchline (the 16th man) needs to be used and the angles of both wings in defence were simply not test quality and France exploited that time and time again down their own left flank.
A great game need two teams; France didn’t disappoint either and their back row and both centres were magnificent. Bernard Le Roux came of age as a test flanker, putting in a huge shift in the loose, and Dusautoir, save for a crucial missed tackle on the mercurial Ben Youngs, showed just why he has become to France what Richard Hill was to England a few years back. Goujon battered his way into traffic time and time again and showed huge power, despite being stripped of the ball for one of Jack Nowell’s brace of tries, and Mermoz and Fickou showed guile and pace that matched the skills of their opponents.
Looking forward to the World Cup, England have a few problems, a few bonuses and a number of selection issues to muse.
If fit, Manu Tuilagi should be a shoo-in to return at 12, a position he played with success on the 2013 Lions tour. In the front row, Alex Corbisiero and Marler are riches indeed to choose from, and Davey Wilson, England’s best scrummager, is approaching fitness, but undoubtedly will start on the bench when all are fit.
The locks are also an area of riches but England, unless Launchbury’s fitness problems erase themselves, are unsure of the man to partner Courtney Lawes. Parling is an immense grafter, but lacks the X Factor of the Wasps man. England ideally would like to re-balance their line out with Wood returning, but if Haskell is consigned to the bench, they will lose a big carrier.
The wings too are undecided. There are glimpses that suggest Nowell and Watson should be retained, but defensive lapses that question their selection.
But, and it’s a big but, England need to balance their starting XV with intelligent bench options. In all of the turmoil of yesterday’s cut and thrust, when Tom Youngs came on and Easter replaced Parling, they lost 3 crucial line outs on their own throw, one of which resulted in a French try at the other end of the pitch. The removal of Ben Youngs too was crazy. Any player joining that melee was sure to take time to bed in and Wigglesworth’s service was nowhere near as snappy as the man he replaced.
The message is clear; let’s not lose the attacking ambition and execution that’s been developed. But to say England can’t further improve is wrong. Bolt down the basics, improve the defensive awareness and create greater accuracy in defence will be the feeling going through the squad.
It’s a truism that every single World Cup winner has had the best defensive record at their respective tournaments. England have the firepower to unlock the best in the World right now, but in order to succeed they now need to hold their own fort when they don’t have the ball.
If they can do this, then, and only then, can they say they’re real contenders for the biggest prize of all.
Twickenham, London - Saturday 14 March 2015
KO: 17:00 HT: 10-13 Att: 82,284
T: Joseph, Ford, Nowell C: Ford (2) P: Ford (2)
T: Bennett C: Laidlaw P: Laidlaw (2)
FOR those witnessing the opening moments of the England v Scotland fixture, it looked for a fleeting moment that the national rugby side might just put a score together that would further embarrass their cricketing compatriots at the World Cup, even if it were embarrassment by envy.
Alas, a doughty fight back by a gritty Scots side combined with England’s endemic inability to finish provided a game that spluttered and stuttered through 80 minutes.
Scotland can be proud of what they achieved. Stuart Hogg is the form player of the Six Nations and threatened time and time again with ball in hand and pace in feet. Blair Cowan too, a gritty openside, caused England all sorts of headaches at the breakdown, as did Johnny Gray in the line out. But England don’t lose often at Twickenham, and in the final analysis they always seemed to have an extra gear.
Let’s examine the evidence; there appears to be a number of good units in the English side, but to the layman, that is exactly what they are- isolated units that are not working together.
An example is the imperious Joe Marler; a man who has terrorised some good tightheads this year but fell foul of Roman Poite’s whistle in the first few scrums. Close analysis will reveal that Rob Harley, the Scottish flanker on Euan Murray’s side for both scrums, went past his prop into Marler’s shoulder and pulled the Quins’ loosehead out by the shorts. This causes a prop to pivot and drive in. As sad as it is to say, if the referee does not pick that canny but illegal move up, working as a unit means James Haskell, the opposing flanker, needed to sort this out, legally or not, what ever that means in today’s sanitized game. Allowing Harley to get away with it is simply not on and Marler was neutered as a result.
And, in the backs, whilst George Ford looks sublime, finding gaps that simply shouldn’t exist in the modern game, there’s a huge disconnect between his vision and the backs around him. Is it a selfish desire to get on the scoresheet or just poor basic skill sets that allowed England to butcher three clear cut try opportunities? It simply has to be one or the other, and Luther Burrell and Ben Youngs will undoubtedly have received an ear bashing of military proportions when they went in at half time.
But let’s not get overly harsh. The simple fact is England ARE creating more opportunities than for a long time; it’s almost like a false dawn, but one that perhaps will soon come over the horizon.
The key here is about selection. Selection of options, understanding how you use the players around you to their core strengths, when to pass to the gas man or the big man. These are all issues that become resolved with the maturity of playing together time and time again.
On Saturday, England showed they were still raw. Factor into that the supreme talking of Hogg, who time and time again took the last man down, the ability of Cowan to get himself over the ball and split the ruck out, and also Scotland’s ability to exploit the now well known gaping England line out hole, when they take their last jumper out of contact with the rest of the line, then you’ll see that rawness is perhaps a little sore right now.
Looking forward to Le Crunch, many have been making much of the fact that France have lost a day’s recovery compared to England, who have a full six days. For those of you who believe this, you might wish to recall the 2003 Rugby World Cup win, when England succeeded despite that short recovery. And to those who muse that England will have an advantage by knowing how many points to score, then perhaps yes, that will inform the replacements but it won’t make a jot of difference to tactics and strategy that has been carved out in the preceding two years under Lancaster’s tenure.
The more worrying prospect is that France actually turn up; any team that sports players of the ability of Thierry Dusautoir, Bernard le Roux and Yohan Huget are capable of winning and France, from a player perspective if not a coaching perspective, have little to lose.
We can expect a titanic clash, with the possibility of Parling and Wood returning from England. We would call it by 9 points to England, but let’s not rule out anything happening in this clash of the rugby titans.
Aviva Stadium, Dublin - Sunday 01 March 2015
KO: 15:00 HT: 9-3 Att: tbc
T: Henshaw C: Sexton P: Sexton (4)
P: Ford (2) DG: Ford
THIS was a game that screamed rugby basics from the first moment of the game until the last. And in every aspect of fundamental rugby, Ireland out-thought and out-muscled a rudderless English side, who will be devastated not at the loss, but more so how they managed to be beaten with such simplicity.
Johnny Sexton’s aerial assault of the English back three was relentless; if Vladimir Putin needs any further inspiration for his continued political antics, he’d do well to recruit Sexton into his militia, such was the precision of the Irishman’s carpet-bombing all day.
Then factor in the Irish power at the breakdown and the flawless display in the set-piece and you realise why England came off second best in every department.
Much was made all week of the need for accuracy and precision for both teams. Ireland were imperious in both strategy and execution. Yet where were those qualities in the English gameplan? England went into the match knowing Ireland had arguably the best line out in European rugby, but contrived to limit their options by picking a back-row with no player taller than 6’3” in it. Result? Even if England wanted to use a back row jumper, the locks would be needed to lift, thus cutting down the options to precisely one lord a-leaping. The inclusion of Tom Wood over Haskell would have done much to dynamise the line out and improve the accuracy around the contact area. In terms of vision, this was a crucial selectorial blunder.
Sir Clive Woodward had a mantra- T-CUP. “Thinking Clearly Under Pressure.” The significance of this simple phrase was demonstrated time and time again, as consistently, Conor Murray and Sexton showed mental fortitude as England’s thinking became muddled, incoherent and lacking in harmony.
As a game evolves, so the decision making is out of the coaches’ hands. Great players react and make the right choices; England’s ability to do this became hindered as every second of Irish pressure fragmented their composure.
A case in point; the re-starts to Zebo’s wing were a pre-determined call. Once two or three such kicks had resulted in net Irish gain, then a new strategy was required. England failed to react to an obvious situation.
It was equally apparent that the game would be played as much in the air as on the pitch. Yet as well as Alex Goode and others fielded the Irish bombs, the chasing and pressuring of the return kick was lamentable.
But let’s not denude the Irish showing. Yes, it was simple stuff but even basic rugby requires execution. Conor Murray’s sniping and kicking, and above all, his clear exit strategies from England’s pressure points were an object lesson in the T-CUP principle. His display was peerless from the base and much of Ireland’s field position came from the intelligent variations from the big scrum half.
Ireland were also superior at the breakdown; not so much due to strength or power but more so through accuracy and knowing when to compete. With Craig Joubert producing a magnificent refereeing display, Ireland adapted much more successfully to the South African’s notorious policing of the contact area, their precision finding favour time and time again with the officials, whilst England gave away schoolboy penalties time and time again. Quite frankly, if international forwards don’t know how to enter a ruck situation legally, they should not be playing at this level.
Ireland also seemed to have greater cohesion in every department, a result, no doubt of the amount of time they’ve played together for both Province and Country. The intuitive understanding between Robbie Henshaw and his half-backs resulted in the only try of the game, Henshaw reacting to the vision of his scrum half to reach above Alex Goode and touch down in the openside corner.
Paradoxically, George Ford seemed to be reading a different game to his England midfield colleagues. But one based upon huge vision and a high level of rugby IQ. The disconnect was the inability for Luther Burrell and co to react to Ford and to see the same opportunities he could see. It is without doubt time to see a footballer in the 12 channel alongside Ford, to relieve the kicking pressures and also to deliver a joined up rather than fragmented tactical plan.
In the final analysis, England need to be pragmatic about this defeat and Ireland should accept this is no more than they should now expect with their seasoned pack. It is no shame to lose in Dublin to an Irish side who, on recent form, are second only the New Zealand in terms of wins.
But pragmatism also involves honesty. And that honesty should dictate that changes need to be made to evolve a 15 man gameplan rather than one restricted by self imposed selectorial options.
Stuart Lancaster will be bitterly disappointed, but that disappointment needs to be tempered into new steel in their tactical selections. Just as Ireland learned from their defeat at Twickenham last year, so England will emerge better for the loss providing they absorb the lesson in basic rugby they just received.
Twickenham, London - Saturday 14 February 2015
KO: 14:30 HT: 15-5
T: Billy Vunipola, Joseph (2), Ben Youngs, Cipriani, Easter C: Ford (3), Cipriani P: Ford (3)
T: Parisse, Morisi (2) C: Allan
PLAYING Italy in the Six Nations normally requires a certain amount of preparation of post match clichés from their opponents for liberal use in the media explaining quite how difficult it is to break them down in the physical exchanges.
England, however, a side noted for a love of all things power-orientated, have seen the light. Gone are the endless waves of bosh merchants peeling around ruck after ruck and suddenly, with the injury-enforced inclusion of George Ford, Jonathan Joseph, Antony Watson and Jonny May, pace has become the weapon of choice and England are looking a mightier side for it.
The game started spectacularly for the Azzurri; their immense talisman Sergio Parisse going over in the corner after a sublime dummy took out three England players. Indeed, the smouldering Italian seemed to be everywhere during the game and during that try he featured four times in the build up.
But this England side are now used to going behind early and they didn’t disappoint, as George Ford, prepared to risk his diminutive frame by playing flatter than flat on the gain line, orchestrated a superb display of both team and individual skills sets.
As noted earlier, England’s backline selection is almost by default of injury, yet the emergency ingredients have somehow created a dish of mouth-watering proportions. And ironically, Mike Brown’s unfortunate clash with Masi allowed Billy Twelvetrees to enter the fray at 12 and further season the gastronomic delights of the three-quarters.
With Burrell, a player that offers bulk and carry, now in the outside centre channel, Twelvetrees’ distribution alongside Ford brought a new dimension to England’s execution.
But let’s not get ahead of ourselves; after George Ford notched an early penalty, England used their time-honed line out maul for Billy Vunipola, a man stung into new levels of form from his Autumn omission, for the big Saracen to bundle over in the corner.
Then, a defining moment after 23 minutes, skipper Chris Robshaw turned over the Italian centre Morisi, and in a split second Jonathan Joseph, attacking the 110 kilos of fly half Kelly Haimona, broke clear and demonstrated a turn of pace rarely seen in a white shirt since the retirement of Jason Robinson, sprinting fully 65 metres to scamper under the posts for a stunning score.
England went into half time with a creditable 15-5 lead; it could have been more as Jonny May, a true Curates’ Egg of a player butchered an obvious overlap, despite his good initial burst.
18 minutes of mayhem after the interval took England 37 points clear of Italy. The value of playing a specialist inside centre became clear when Ford and Twelvetrees combined with a lovely miss and loop to send the rapier Joseph over for his brace.
Rugby these days is a 23 man game, and impact, substitution and replacement are detailed part of any side planning strategy.
Enter Nick ‘Minty’ Easter. A man who a year ago was planning his benefit and retirement. The evergreen Harlequin, who Stuart Lancaster described as ‘chomping at the bit’ to get on the pitch, took England to a new focus of physicality around the fringes as he defined the word ‘impact’. No try was more popular than his as he scrambled over from a driving maul shortly before the end. Despite only being 6’ 4” on tiptoe, Easter’s line out skills are such that England have no qualms about playing him in any of the back five scrum positions. One hopes that the Management will persist with him to the World Cup as few players offer the level of nous and experience he brings to the squad.
Looking back at the game, England have moved forward greatly. They’ve started to fuse a counterpoint of pace and guile with the known qualities of power and physicality. The gain line tackling remains a feature, seeing England rush hard to hit the receiver at the moment of contact, behind the initial first pass. And the scrummage, led by the now truly world-class Joe Marler, is a powerhouse of disruption and possession.
England may not yet be quite the finished article. Indeed, they have selectorial issues aplenty, but the issues are ones of positive focus. Where do they play Joseph? What is the perfect centre combination with Tuilagi and Eastmond now approaching a degree of fitness? And what of the tireless Tom Wood? Where does he fit in after the performances of James Haskell, who now appears to be doing his talking on the pitch rather than on his iPad?
Some would say the World Cup can’t come soon enough for England. The truth is, it would be better off coming six months later than it is, as this England side are maturing to new heights. They just need a little more time to gel and discover their best options.
Once they’ve done this, they’ve the personnel to beat any side in the world.
Expect great things; this team are capable of it.
Millennium Stadium, Cardiff - Friday 06 February 2015
KO: 20:05 HT: 16-8
T: Webb C: Halfpenny P: Halfpenny (2) DG: Biggar Cuthbert
T: Watson, Joseph C: Ford P: Ford (3)
THIS was a win hewn from the granite like self-belief and pride imbued throughout England under Stuart Lancaster.
Banished were the memories of England’s Cardiff thrashing of two years ago as England’s power, fitness and pride outweighed any supposed gulf of experience between the two sides.
The moment Stuart Lancaster picked two kicking scrum halves and then insisted upon playing rugby in the outdoor conditions it was designed for, then the die was cast for a game of fine margins and physicality.
Those close to Warren Gatland always point out that his natural reaction to the failure of his much-vaunted Plan A is to ignore any thought of a Plan B and to throw more bulk into his initial thinking. Sadly for Wales, England’s Orcs welcomed this with arms open wide, in every sense, and with James Haskell, Joe Marler, George Kruis and the outstanding Chris Robshaw in rumbustious form, the battle of the gain line only saw one winner.
A few England teams in recent memory would have crumbled after those hectic first ten minutes, which saw Wales take an early 10-point lead. Yet paradoxically, the timing of that lead gave England plenty of game time to cancel out Wales’ opening flurry of hope. Ten metres out, England’s scrummage propelled the Welsh eight back faster than an overdue library book; crucially, the otherwise outstanding James Haskell opted to keep driving Marler his dominant loosehead, forward, rather than to slip his bind to tackle the first carrier, leaving Taulupe Faletau a crucial split second to break blind and set up an overlap for Webb to scamper over for the opening score, as Haskell’s mistake was compounded by Jonny May’s inexperience in using the 16th man (touchline) as an extra defender.
Wales took a huge gamble in picking veteran prop Gethin Jenkins in their front row. Where Melon treads, so collapsed scrummages follow, and it was only the palpable lack of understanding of front row dynamics from the officials that prevented Jenkins from being carded after his first chronically illegal 3 scrummages, such was the power the English eight created. Faced with Cole’s excellence, Jenkins had two choices; hinge or step around the corner, and he alternated both tactics with monotonous predictability. The English scrum is all about duration as a unit. Graham Rowntree insists that England will maintain their shape longer than any other side in the world and yet again this magician of a forwards coach was proven right as England turned the screws to shearing point in the tight.
As the game became a behemoth battle of the gain line, an interesting pattern emerged; Wales used their three quarters to bash the holes and make the tackles, whilst England’s power conversely emanated from their pack. The result was that when Wales took the ball into contact the backs were tied into the contact area, leaving a paucity of pace in the outside channels. England, on the other hand, by using those forwards, always had a couple of speedsters free and available which allowed greater territory around the fringes once space emerged. The final 20 minutes of the game polarised this perfectly as time and time again, Attwood and the English back row held Wales big backs up in choke and double tackles, absolutely bossing that metre of momentum either side of the gain-line and forcing the paceless Wales to crab from one touchline to the other.
Further evidence emerged in the brain versus brawn debate when two of the slightest players on the pitch, Mike Brown and the scintillating Anthony Watson, combined to send the Bath flyer over for his first test score. England’s second try was hailed as a brilliant solo effort by the in-form yet diminutive Jonathan Joseph but credit must also go to his team-mates for opening up the holes and creating the fatigue that allowed him to scamper and sidestep as he’s done for Bath all season.
But here’s the thing; England have undoubtedly recorded one of their finest wins under Lancaster. Yet if they rest on that deserved laurel of undoubted glory, they’ll not realise just how much they could and should improve from this display. For all the heroics of the back row, there was a glaring lack of linking and offloading. You could argue that players were not making themselves available but at times neither was the carrier looking for his teammate. The coaches will also worry about decisioning of contact; time and time again England took the ball into isolation where only Jérôme Garcès' laissez-faire interpretation of the ruck laws (which was woeful for BOTH teams) got them out of jail.
The other concern will be the line-out; England had lost one throw during the Autumn Tests yet conspired to treble that tally in Cardiff. You could put that down to a couple of poor throws from Hartley but a line-out is the sum of a lot of parts and when you lose a primary jumper of the calibre of Tom Wood and take only one real back row jumping option (Robshaw) into a test then it’s obvious you will lose impact. As well as the back row played, there was, at times, a glaring lack of balance for anything other than a slugfest style of game.
And what of Wales? Cynically, those that witnessed England trotting out into a dark and silent stadium, followed by Wales emerging like Moses parting the Red Sea in a Katy Perry video would suggest that Warren Gatland might focus on his union’s money developing new blood rather than creating comedy pre-match moments and acerbic one liners for TV outtake shows.
The truth of Gatland’s dilemma is that the Welsh have grown old together. There’s a fine line between experience and old age and couple this with a formula that’s simply past it sell-by date and you’ll see Wales have more pressing concerns than just this defeat. New blood, varied tactics and greater fitness need to be bolted on to the Welsh game and damned quickly, otherwise Wales are doomed to stay in their group come the Rugby World Cup.
Nevertheless, the Six Nations season is but a weekend old; the true test will be how both sides absorb the lessons of this thrilling encounter and who emerges the most consistent side over the next 7 weeks.
One thing is for sure; if every game is as compelling as this, we’re in for a treat of International Rugby.
