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Ben Youngs voices exactly what every England fan is thinking
By Josh Raisey
Leicester Tigers scrum-half Ben Youngs has questioned the scheduling of England’s Autumn Nations Series fixtures, which saw them face Japan on the final weekend.
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Following a campaign in which England only managed one with from four, the 127-cap former international believes it would have been beneficial to face the Brave Blossoms, a side ranked significantly lower than them, in their first fixture, which would have allowed the side to “iron out” any problems.
Instead, England hosted the All Blacks in the opening match of their campaign, a side who at the time were ranked two places above them in third, where they found themselves trailing 6-14 after the opening half hour of play.
Speaking on his podcast For the Love of Rugby after England’s 59-14 win over Japan, Youngs was joined by his Leicester team-mate Anthony Watson, who was equally as confused by the scheduling.
The pair will not be alone with this view after an autumn campaign where Steve Borthwick’s side underachieved in light of the expectations heading into the month.
“Whoever organises the fixtures for the autumn,” Youngs said. “England have got to play someone like Japan or other nations similar to that level in round one. We can’t be playing them in the back end of the autumn.
“We almost need that game as the first game to get some game time under our belt, get some cohesion because we went New Zealand, Australia, South Africa then Japan, it should have been flipped the other way around. Japan should have been first, in my opinion, or a team, or of a Japan calibre. I think moving forward there needs to be an understanding to give England a better chance in terms of setting them up for the remainder of the autumn.
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“We’ve been there as players mate, we understand the difference between going in against one of the teams that have just been playing The Rugby Championship, cohesion all that, to actually playing a team that sit outside the top eight or top 10, or whatever.
“We’ve played autumn games where you’ve played a Tonga, a Fiji, or Georgia teams like that and you almost iron out some of the early stuff that you need to then work forward after that.”
Watson added: “Yeah, I think that having the Japan game first would have been significantly easier and more useful to the England team but there’s got to be something in it that’s way above our pay grade as to why they they schedule it like that. Because it doesn’t seem to make sense, like you said.”
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We don't know what choices England had. Its entirely possible that their only option for a NZ game was in the first week of the international window.
To be harsh, England have no right to expect a cushy schedule. In Nov 2002 we faced NZ Aus and SA and found a way to win all three. I'm not saying for a minute that this England team is close to Johnno's side but you don't improve by taking the easy option. Fix the defence, the players need to work on their individual skill sets because they are lacking.
Not harsh at all. The RFU needs to get over itself, not everyone can play a 'lesser' team for the first fixture - someone has to play a higher ranked team first. The team (all the team, not just the players) had the choice to step up, but they did not.@SteveD has a good point, it's the same old same old with the RFU. If Rassie can fix a broken Bok team and Schmidt can fix a broken Wallabies team, then England rugby has no excuse except to pull their finger out of the proverbial.
The very fact that an incredibly good defence coach like Felix Jones couldn't last more than seven months in the mix suggests - much like Youngs' excuses here - that it's the 'same old, same old' Posh Boy system that England, even with the relatively huge number of rugby players in the country, will never get over. The sadness is that they have - and still do, although at least Beaumont's influence is now going - had a very detrimental effect on rugby union over the years which needs to be pried from their grasp. Unhappily the bringing in of Robinson as Chairman won't help much but it's better than the status quo.
Yes, makes sense. But England would have lost all three tests anyway. At least they have some wind in the sails.
I'm not entirely sure England would have lost to NZ if they'd had a bit of game time under their belt before that test.
Then again, this England team have become experts at snatching defeat from the jaws of victory over the past year so I wouldn't rule it out.