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
Very unlikely the Bulls will beat Leinster in Dublin. It would be different in Pretoria.
1 Go to commentsI think it is a dangerous path to go down to ban a player for the same period that a player they injured takes to recover. Players would be afraid to tackle anyone. I once tackled my best friend at school in a practice match and sprained his ankle. I paid for it by having to play fly-half instead of full-back for the rest of that season’s fixtures.
5 Go to commentsJust such a genuine good bloke…and probably the best all round player in his generation. Good guys do come first sometimes and he handled the W.Cup loss with great attitude.
2 Go to commentsWord in France is that he’s on the radar of a few Top14 clubs.
2 Go to commentsGet blocking Travis, this guy has styles and he’s gonna make a swift impact…!
1 Go to commentsWhat remorse? She claimed that her dangerous tackle wasn’t worthy of a red! She should be compensating the injured player for loss of earnings at the minimum. Her ban should include the recovery time of the injured player as well as the paltry 3 match ban.
5 Go to commentsArdie is a legend. Finished and klaar. Two things: “Yeah, yeah, I have had a few conversations with Razor just around feedback on my game and what I am doing well, what I need to improve on or work-ons. It’s kind of been minimal, mate, but it’s all that I need over here in terms of how to be better, how to get better and what I am doing well.” I hope he’s downplaying it - and that it’s not that “minimal”. The amount of communication and behind the scenes preparation the Bok coaches put into players - Rassie and co would be all over Ardie and being clear on what is expected of him. This stands out for me as something teams should really be looking at in terms of the boks success from a coaching point of view. And was surprised by the comment - “minimal”. In terms of the “debate” around Ireland and South Africa. Nice one Ardie. Indeed. There’s no debate.
2 Go to commentsThere’s a bit of depth there but realistically Australian players have a long way to go to now catch up. The game is moving on fast and Australia are falling behind. Australian sides still don’t priories the breakdown like they should, it’s a non-negotiable if you want to compete on the international stage. That goes for forwards and backs. The Australian team could have a back row that could make a difference but the problem is they don’t have a tight five that can do the business. Tupou is limited in defence, overweight and unfit and the locks are a long way from international standard. Frost is soft and Salakai-Loto is too small so that means they need a Valentini at 8 who has to do the hard graft so limits the effectiveness of the backrow. Schmidt really needs to get a hard working, tough tight 5 if he wants to get this team firing.
3 Go to commentsSorry Morgan you must have been the “go to for a quote” ex player this week. Its rnd 6 and there is plenty of time to cement a starting 15 and finishing 8 so I have no such concerns.
2 Go to commentsGreat read. I wish you had done this article on the ROAR.
2 Go to commentsThe current AB coaching team is basically the Crusaders so it smacks of wanting their familiar leaders around. This is not a good look for the future of the ABs or the younger players in Super working their way up the player ladder. Razor is touted as innovative, forward looking but his early moves look like insecurity and insular, provincial thinking. He is the AB's coach not the Golden Oldies.
10 Go to commentsSimple reason for wanting him back. Robertson wants him as captain. Otherwise he wouldn’t be bothering chasing him. Not enough reason to come back just to mentor.
10 Go to commentsI had not considered this topic like this at all, brilliant read. I had been looking at his record at the Waratahs and thought it odd the Crusaders appointed him, then couple that with all that experience and talent departing and boom. They’ve got some great talent developing though, and in all honesty I don’t think anyone would be over confident taking them on in a playoff match, no matter how poor the first half of their season was. I think they can pull a game out of their ass when it counts.
2 Go to commentsNot a bad list but not Porecki and not Donaldson. Not because they are Tahs, or Ex Tahs, they are just not good enough. Edmed should be ahead. Far more potential. Wilson should be 8 and Valentini 6. Wilson needs to be told by his father and his coach, stop bloody running in to brick wall defence. You’re not playing under the genius Thorn any more. He’s a fantastic angle runner. The young new 8 from the Brumbies looks really good too. The Lonegrans are just too small for international rugby as is Paisami, as is Hamish Stewart at 12. Both great at Super Rugby level. Stewart could have been a great 10 if not for Brad Thorn. Uru should be there and so should Tupou. Tupou just needs good Australian coaching which he hasn’t been getting. I don’t think Schmidt will excite him.
3 Go to commentsIf he wants to come back then he should. He will be a major asset to the younger locks and could easily be played as an impact player off the bench coming on in the last 30. He is fit, strong and capable and has all the experience to make up for any loss in physical prowess. He could also be brought back with a view to coaching within the structures one day. Duane Vermeulen played until he was 37 or 38. He is now a roaming coach within the South African coaching structures. He was valuable in the last world cup and has been a major influence on Jasper Wiese and other young players which has helped and accelerated their development and growth. Whitelock could do the exact same thing for NZ
10 Go to commentsBrett Excellent words… finally someone (other than DC) has noted that Hanigan is very hard and very good at doing what Backrow should do… his performance via the Drua sauna was quite daunting for those on the other side… very high tackle count… carries with good end result… constant threat to make a good 20-25 meters with those long legs… providing his mass effectively to crunching the Drua pack… Finally he is returning to quality form… way to much injury time over the last 2 years… smart-strong-competent in his skills… caught every lineout throw aimed at him and delivered clean pass to whoever was down below… and he worked hard for the whole 80 minutes… Ned has to be in the top 5 for backrow honors… He knows what is required as he has been there before…
20 Go to commentsI think Sam Whitelock should not touch a return with a bargepole. He went out on a high, playing in the RWC Final. He would be coming back into a team that will be weaker than last years, and might even be struggling to win games, especially against the Boks. Stay in France, enjoy another year with Pau, playing alongside his brother.
10 Go to commentsRyan Coxon has been very impressive considering he was signed by WF as injury cover whilst Uru has been a standout for QR, surprised neither of those mentioned
3 Go to commentsIt’s the massive value he brings with regard team culture/values, preparation, etc. Can’t buy that. I’m hoping to see the young locks get their chance in the big games though.
10 Go to commentsAll good, Gregor, except that you neglected to mention Sam Darry amongst that talented pool of locks. In fact, given Hannah’s inexperience and the fact that Holland won’t be eligible until next year, Lord and Darry might be the frontrunners this year, to join Barrett, Tuipoluto, Va’ii and possibly Whitelock. In fact there might be room for all of them if Barrett played 6 (like Ollie Chessum).
10 Go to comments