England's tactical flexibility a myth or was Cardiff a one-off?
Just as it felt as if England were about to banish the demons of 2018, along they came again.
England headed to Cardiff on Saturday full of confidence from their impressive victories over Ireland and France, but it was not a confident performance that was turned out on the Principality Stadium pitch.
It’s not that the group went and lost to Wales, which is not a disheartening fact in itself given Wales’ strength at the moment, it’s that they didn’t fire their shots. It’s that they lost to a Welsh team that, in all honesty, didn’t play to their potential, either.
Part of what had made those performances against Ireland and France so impressive, was the fact that they had seemed tailormade to exposing those opponents’ weaknesses. It spoke of a tactical flexibility and cerebral game plan that boded well for England in a Rugby World Cup year.
The pinpoint kicking game exploited Ireland’s high wingers and it shredded France’s back three, who were, to put it politely, positionally naïve. Going up against Wales’ settled back three of George North, Liam Williams and Josh Adams, that surely wasn’t going to be the plan again, was it?
The excitement about the tactical ingenuity being moulded quickly dissipated, though, as England, rather relentlessly, went to the same kicking game that had previously flummoxed Ireland and France.
Where England had turned both those sides and been able to utilise the speed, work rate and aerial ability of Jonny May, Jack Nowell and Chris Ashton to harass and pressure, they were met by players positioned deep, competent in the air and able to run on to the ball and counter-attack.
Both Ben Youngs and Owen Farrell struggled to execute the plan with the same precision, in fairness, but even if they had, it was a game plan which played into the hands of Wales, and even with both May and Nowell chasing well and winning a number of aerial contests, it was still manageable for the hosts to deal with. With success against Ireland and France, England kept going back to the well in those two games, and in the struggle against Wales, England still kept going back to the well.
For the third match in a row, England’s centre pairing accounted for three or fewer passes in total and where that hadn’t been an issue before, it played into the hands of Wales’ ferocious defence close to the ruck and their deeper back three.
Given the composure and clinical nature with which England executed it in the previous two fixtures, you can understand wanting to try and repeat the process, despite Wales being better suited to deal with it, but what was most disheartening about the performance was the inability for England to adapt. Was it a coaching decision to stick with the tactic regardless or was it a lack of leadership on the pitch among the players, to diagnose the problems and adjust accordingly?
England were having success on the gain-line. Tom Curry and Billy Vunipola were both carrying effectively, England’s forwards were running on to the breakdown and delivering quick ball, but even with tempo and the numbers to go wide, England were still opting to kick. Sometimes it would come on first phase, at other times on the third or fourth phase, but regardless, it was the go-to option.
This is a wake-up call for England. The players, the coaches and even the fans, all of whom can be forgiven for getting carried away with the effectiveness of the first two games, have been shown just how much further the team needs to go to get to where they all want it to be.
Do the coaches need to give the players more freedom on the pitch to execute their own strategy based on the scenarios in the game, or do they need to put in more hours on the training pitch developing the structures for players to pull off multiple pre-planned strategies in a game? Only those in the camp will truly know the answer to that.
One critique which does, indisputably, fall at the coaching staff’s feet, though, was the unused bench.
Termed “finishers” since Jones’ arrival in 2016, the group weren’t, for the most part, allowed a reasonable crack at finishing the contest. With England struggling and momentum all going Wales’ way, it seemed like the perfect time to bring on these game-changing talents.
With Youngs’ kick-heavy approach failing to expose Wales, the livewire Dan Robson went unused from the bench, whilst George Ford and Luke Cowan-Dickie similarly didn’t make it onto the pitch. The lineout was operating well, and Farrell hadn’t missed a kick, so given the closeness of the score line, those last two are understandable, but still surprising that they were deemed not capable of positively changing the match.
Two other interesting calls were the decisions to give Ellis Genge and Joe Cokanasiga just a handful of minutes each. Both players are the kind of powerful, incisive ball-carriers that could have wrested momentum back to England, had they had longer on the pitch to influence the game. Instead, it felt like England were trying to see out the game at 13-9 up, and when Adams went over for Wales with less than 10 minutes to go, it was too little too late for the visitors, who then turned to alternatives.
Coupled with England conceding three times as many penalties as Wales, coughing up a major possession advantage – over 2:1 in Wales’ favour in the second half, without England controlling the territorial battle in the process – and an inability to turn what breaks they had into points, or at least an extended phase that drew the Welsh defence into disarray, it all proved a bridge too far for England.
It comes at an inopportune time for Jones’ side, too, as next up on the slate is Italy.
It’s a match that has been marked on the calendar for some time now as an opportunity for the Australian to get some international minutes into the legs of the likes of Cokanasiga and Genge. If he does ring the changes, it denies this group an opportunity to show that the result and performance in Cardiff was a one off, and that they are in fact a more dynamic bunch who can execute more proficiently and adapt to adverse in-game situations. If he sticks with this group, it denies some of the players on the cusp the opportunity to impress.
It all just throws a spanner in the works of what, to this point, had been the perfect Six Nations for England. The momentum is gone, England’s ability to adapt has been exposed and the perfect scenario for the Italy game has been lost.
That said, great teams are forged in adversity and there were positives in defeat.
Curry, again, looked to the manor born in the seven jersey. He was England’s primary carrier alongside Vunipola, his mobility in defence allowed England to deny Wales width and he was forcing turnovers through both the physicality of his tackling and his ability at the contact area.
May and Nowell both did well in the aerial contests, chased hard and, like Curry, prevented Wales from hurting England in the wide channels, whilst Courtney Lawes and Kyle Sinckler were trading off on making ultra-physical, dominant tackles on some of Wales’ most effective carriers.
Defensively, England were again excellent. Aside from Adams winning the aerial contest with Elliot Daly for the pivotal score, the visitors at the Principality rarely put a foot wrong on that side of the ball.
Unfortunately for them, defence was not enough to win this one and now it’s Wales who march on towards the objective of a Grand Slam.
With home games against Italy and Scotland to come, there are, on paper, opportunities to regain momentum ahead of a busy summer preparing for the Rugby World Cup, but England need to have learnt the lessons of Cardiff if they are to kick on to the next level and realise the full potential of what they were showing in Dublin and Twickenham earlier this month.
Identifying those issues will be the first step of that learning process and it is sure to be an interesting couple of weeks in camp preparing for the visit of the Azzurri when the group reassembles in the coming days.
Watch: When Jim met Finn
Comments on RugbyPass
Wasnt late. Ref 2 assistants andTMO all saw it so who are you to say it was?
3 Go to commentsAre the Brumbies playing the Blues twice in a row?
3 Go to commentsBig difference from the Saders. Forwards really muscled up and laid a solid platform. Scooter brought some steel and I liked the loosie combination. Newell has been rather disappointing this season but stepped up big time - happy also to see Franks dot down. He should do that more often! Reihana had a good game and there seems to be more flair and invention with him in the saddle. McNicoll plays well from the back and is reliable plus inventive when he joins the line. Keep it up chaps!
3 Go to comments🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
30 Go to commentsJe suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
3 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusaders , you can keep going.
3 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
30 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
30 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
30 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
30 Go to comments