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Rassie Erasmus holds the solution to England's Jamie George conundrum

South Africa head coach Rassie Erasmus and England captain Jamie George (Photos By Brendan Moran/Sportsfile via Getty Images and Julian Finney/Getty Images)

If the hackneyed sporting adage ‘you either win or you learn’ is anything to go by, the England squad have been treated to enough information over the last three weeks to come out of the Autumn Nations Series with PhDs.

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The lessons have been varied and painful, with England’s attack coming under the microscope one week, followed by their defence the next. But one lesson that England do not appear to be learning is that captain Jamie George is being removed too early.

No sooner had the final whistle blown against South Africa than George was being peppered with questions over his early substitutions. He played them with a straight bat, but it must be agony for any captain to helplessly watch his side unravel from the sidelines.

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There are clearly metrics that indicate George’s performance dips early in the second half and Steve Borthwick acts accordingly. But there are intangibles that will never be reified as data on a screen- leadership, composure, decision-making – all the attributes England have appeared to be shorn of when it comes to the crunch.

England’s skipper managed 52 minutes against the All Blacks (with a further three at the end), 50 against Australia and only 48 against South Africa. The side have therefore been without their captain for over a third of the entire November campaign to date.

Fixture
Internationals
England
59 - 14
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Japan
All Stats and Data

Theo Dan and Luke Cowan-Dickie have performed well in George’s stead, particularly the Saracen’s eye-catching display against the All Blacks. But it has been plain for all to see at Twickenham’s Allianz Stadium that the home side have been crying out for direction and a calming influence in the dying embers of each match.

Fortunately for Borthwick, there is a solution. What’s even better is that it is the brainchild of the all-conquering duo of Rassie Erasmus and Jacques Nienaber.

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The Springboks are in a nice position of having two world-class hookers in Bongi Mbonambi and Malcolm Marx that they can chop and change, so much so that a third would just unnecessarily complicate things.

The South African coaching staff knew this heading into the World Cup last year, and thus decided to select just the two hookers in their squad. Crucially though, they had a player in flanker Deon Fourie someone who was more than comfortable moonlighting as a hooker and had played a fair portion of his career there. Therein lies England’s answer.

Disaster struck, however, after just one match when Marx was ruled out of the rest of the tournament with a knee injury, leaving everyone to debate which hooker would be called up in his place. But Erasmus and Nienaber had other plans and selected fly-half Handre Pollard, putting their faith in Deon Fourie as Mbonambi’s back-up, as well as fellow back-row Marco van Staden.

For the rest of the pool stage Mbonambi shared the workload with Fourie (albeit with mixed results at times). In fact, the Boks’ first choice was given the day off in the final match against Tonga, with Fourie starting and van Staden wearing the No 16 jersey. The substitute hooker did come on, but most importantly it was for Siya Kolisi.

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When it came to the knockouts though, the machinations of Erasmus and Nienaber were clear. Mbonambi played almost the entire match against France in the quarter-finals and played the full 80 against England a week later. South Africa still got their money’s worth out of substitute hooker Fourie though, who played the final 35 minutes against France and the final half hour against England on the flank. When Mbonambi was roped off against Les Bleus, that’s when he moonlighted as a hooker for the final five minutes.

It was a different matter in the final, with Mbonambi leaving the field injured after only four minutes. Suddenly Fourie was required to play almost an 80 minute stretch in his unfavoured position. This was when the schemes of Erasmus and Nienaber looked like they had blown up in their faces. But Fourie passed with flying colours. It was a stroke of genius. What’s more, the decision to turn to Pollard in place of Marx was perhaps even more defining as they defended the Webb Ellis Cup.

George is England’s equivalent to Mbonambi. When push came to shove for the Boks at the World Cup, they wanted the Sharks hooker on as much as possible, but knew they had a willing and able deputy in Fourie who primarily still served as a back-row replacement.

England must now find their Fourie.

There are a number of ways England could go about finding their Fourie. One is converting a current hooker to play in the back-row.

It is not impossible to imagine Theo Dan playing on the flank. The 23-year-old is mobile and packs a punch in contact and, as hookers go, he’s on the lighter side. But could he be converted into a Test-grade back-row? Perhaps not. What’s more, is it fair to scupper a promising career in the making for a player that has solely devoted himself to playing in the front-row?

Another alternative is for England to look for hookers that have dabbled in the back-row. Such players do exist in the Gallagher Premiership. During an injury crisis in 2022, the six-cap Jamie Blamire filled in at openside flanker for Newcastle Falcons. Likewise, Bristol Bears No 2 Gabriel Oghre had a stint at openside to much acclaim while at Wasps. They are not even deemed serviceable back-up hookers to George currently though in Borthwick’s eyes, so fitting them onto England’s bench purely due to their versatility would likely be detrimental to the side’s performance.

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But this is still not following the Springboks’ blueprint. Fourie, and also van Staden, are not hookers first and foremost, they are flankers that can shift up in the scrum. There is still one obvious option.

Bath’s Alfie Barbeary has long been seen as an England international in the making. The bulldozing back-row has been beset by injuries though, which has certainly hampered his form this season, as well as an untimely ban when he looked on the cusp of making an England squad.

The 24-year-old started his career flitting between the loose forwards and hooker while at Wasps. Former Wasps boss Lee Blackett was clearly an advocate of the hooker/flanker hybrid, as former Springbok Ashley Johnson was used in the same way.

Barbeary eventually committed to the back-row, with Blackett revealing that the only reason he laboured at hooker was to boost his chances of playing for England.

“Alfie loved being in the back row,” Blackett said in 2021. “He didn’t enjoy hooker anywhere near as much and probably, in all honesty, the only thing that was motivating him to play there was to play for England.”

Maybe the answer for Barbeary is not to play hooker and not to play in the back-row (primarily a No 8 for Bath), but both.

Out-of-form players should not be shoehorned into the England squad, but there is little doubt that an in-form Barbeary has all the credentials to be a great Test player.

Match Summary

2
Penalty Goals
1
2
Tries
4
2
Conversions
3
0
Drop Goals
0
109
Carries
88
5
Line Breaks
7
12
Turnovers Lost
8
4
Turnovers Won
5

This is a plan that may take some time, as he may need to switch his attention to the front-row again, albeit only as a moonlighter. The Six Nations may come too early, as after all, he needs to find form as a No 8 first, but England have a potential Fourie in him.

This may also satisfy two salient issues that have arisen as Barbeary could add some real heft to a bench that has failed to lay a punch in truth over the past month.

George is 34, this is not a role that will be required of any player for many years. But while he remains captain, the flanker/hooker hybrid seems ideal.

The final, and most simple, solution is just to keep George on for longer. But then England are effectively wasting a space on the bench in the pack. Another great lesson Erasmus has taught the world is the importance of the bench and using it to its maximum potential- having a player who is only granted scraps at the end of a match would not be doing so.

England’s skipper won’t be needed to go the distance every match. What this does mean is in situations where he is required to, Borthwick will know he won’t have a replacement hooker that is nothing more than a glorified cheerleader for 80 minutes wasting away on his bench.

The Springboks head coach is not some madcap rugby philosopher left to conjure crackpot schemes in his attic; he is the brains behind the reigning world number ones and back-to-back world champions, and worth trying to emulate.

Wins have been few and far between this year for England. So if that has indeed provided them with an opportunity to ‘learn’, they should look no further than Dr Rassie Erasmus (literally a doctor) as their teacher.

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Comments

10 Comments
A
AA 18 days ago

At present the captain goes off because he isn't fit enough and getting too old to last a full game.

The team is then run by committee of 3 or is it 4 vice captains .

England keep losing in the last quarter .

Doesn't the problem shout out that we need a captain who can last a full game .

M
Matt Perry 18 days ago

Maybe I'm missing something but this take seems utterly deranged.

c
ch 16 days ago

Spot on. My thoughts exactly.

B
Bull Shark 19 days ago

If the hackneyed sporting adage ‘you either win or you learn’ is anything to go by, the England squad have been treated to enough information over the last three weeks to come out of the Autumn Series with PhDs.

🔥

T
Tom 19 days ago

If Jamie isn't fit enough to play the full 80 then him having to drag himself around for 30 mins blowing out his backside isn't going to be good for anyone. That's not the kind of leadership that's going to fix anything, that's setting a poor example.


Also throwing a part time hooker in between Ox Nche and some other monster is a different prospect to packing down next to Fin Baxter or whoever - no disrespect to Fin, he's a good player but England's scrum can't afford passengers, the Boks can getaway with it.


Either Jamie needs to get fitter so he can play for 70+ minutes and then this isn't such a bad prospect... Or we need a different captain... But I don't think a lack of leadership at the death is close to the top of England's issues. A colander for a defence and a terrible conversion rate for red zone entries rank much higher. England need to find an attacking structure that doesn't rely on Marcus pulling rabbits out of hats and letting Wigglesworth off the hook.

P
Pablo 19 days ago

Everything ok, but I honestly don't get it. What's the point? I guess it's good to have a hooker/flanker option in anycase, ok, but what has that to do with the Jamie George's amount of minutes on or off the field him being captain? If his performance really dips early in the second halves and you have to pull him out, you're then going to lose your captain on stage whoever subtitutes him, no matter if it is a pure two or an hybrid player instead.

T
Tom 19 days ago

The article is suggesting that you leave him on for the full 80 even if his performance dips because he's the leader. Then you just have a flanker who can cover 2 if he gets injured.


Personally, I don't like the idea much.

F
Flankly 19 days ago

Also ... Schalk Brits. Fourie and Van Staden were not the first hybrid hookers/loose forwards for Rassie.

T
Tom 19 days ago

It's time for Harry Thacker!

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S
SK 5 hours ago
'Razor's conservatism is in danger of halting New Zealand's progress'

Its an interesting few points you raise Nick. Rassie has been way bolder than Razor in selection but then again he really has to be as he plots towards 2027. The reality is more than half his squad from 2023 may have to be culled and this includes some of the best players the Boks have ever had on their books. The age profile of his team was such that he needed to blood all these young players and he will do the same next year with even more players as he tries to put together a squad with enough experience to take to 2027. Razor on the other hand has a large number of players that will make 2027. Alot of players will be over 100 caps and these players would have multiple caps together. A large amount of these are starters as well. He is trying to build combinations and a rigid style of play. Razor wants absolute control and you can see it. He wants his players to follow his instructions to the tee. He will not accept anything less. He has included some young guns who he will stick with and older players who have earned his trust. Razor goes with what he knows and appears reluctant to accept quick change. He is the kind of coach who will change incrementally and that may not be a bad thing given his position and the profile of his squad. It also gives the players time to setlle into their roles and to work within his system. Razor has a narrow focus on winning. he wants results now and wont take any risks in selection while he believes the current group can win. He is the most conservative NZ coach in the last 25 years to take the top job. This could stall NZ progress or it could create a team that is unstoppable and ready for anything going into 2027 albeit without the same level of depth as the Boks.

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