Eddies woes
When Stuart Lancaster’s name was on the door at Twickenham, there were many criticisms that seemed to be repeated 15 minutes after every game of his tenure. Among these were his inability to select a balanced back-row that could compete with the best, picking players out of their natural positions, not having a definitive style of rugby, a stubborn selection of certain players (Brad Barritt) and one that proved particularly costly, not finishing games with 15 players that could win you the game. How Eddie has fared in these departments has not come under much scrutiny whilst England have gone from win to win over the last 2 years, this however, may be about to change.
The back-row on Saturday took a serious beating. John Barclay and Hamish Watson in particular stopped everything thing that England runners threw at them. This was helped by the fact that England only decided to start going wide when they went down to 14 men which wasn’t the smartest game plan we’ve seen under Eddie Jones. It also wasn’t helped by the substitution of Nathan Hughes which led to Chris Robshaw going to 8 which provided flashbacks of when Lancaster got into a habit of picking Tom Wood at 8, unsurprisingly, neither of them provided much go forward from the base of the scrum. Spare a thought for Don Armand who has been in the form of his life for a few years without getting too much attention from Eddie just yet. As good as Courtney Lawes is, he doesn’t have the pace of a modern day 6 and he is surely a better asset to England competing for a space in the second-row.
Whilst England’s back-row has played well in many games under Eddie and shouldn’t be too much cause for panic when key players return, England’s style of play is probably more of a cause for concern however. 10 minutes in it became very apparent that Nigel Owens, known for his ability to facilitate a fast, open game, was going to have a long day of repeatedly telling Danny Care to use the ball. Care, known for his sharp feet and ability to cause chaos around the base of a ruck, could have been mistaken for Richard Wigglesworth on Saturday as he looked to box-kick as much as he could and when looking to pass, certainly took his time to do so, occasionally allowing the Scottish pack the time to drive through the ruck and add to their growing tally of turnovers. We also saw Anthony Watson refuse to take a quick line-out early on when in acres of space, England then choosing to maul with clean ball rather than unleash Ford and Farrell off the top. Scotland dealt with the English maul with great ease, at times pushing it into the touch leaving the English forwards looking lost and confused. It is always a worry when you see exciting players taking very conservative, safety first choices and not fulfilling their potential, this is something that English fans had to witness a lot after 2003 and hopefully not again under Eddie Jones’ reign.
There has been a lot of debate about selection in English rugby recently which is an inherent talking point due to the vast number of players an England coach will always have at his disposal. The most stunning omission recently has been that of Dan Robson who has been the form scrum-half in England for a while and as a minimum would be lethal off the bench for England. To then watch Richard Wigglesworth coming on to change the game when England were behind was confusing at best. Wigglesworth, a great club rugby player and super box-kicker, has never been known for his ability to break up a game, make breaks and change the pace and intensity of a match and sadly the same can be said of his impact on Saturday. It is even more surprising considering Wigglesworth is 9 years older than Robson who clearly has a big future ahead of him and England would be extremely lucky if Robson chooses to avoid the lucrative offers that will no doubt come from across the channel at some point soon.
I’m one of many that think England need to be able to change the way we play depending on the game in front of them and this will involve tweaking the team from time to time. Mike Brown is a brilliant full back in a tight game in tough conditions. Is he what you want in a fast paced, open game of rugby? Probably not. His passing once again proved to be below his pay grade and his defending as an international full-back for Scotland’s third try was just simply not good enough. It makes you wonder whether Mike Brown is going to be the guy who will help England beat New Zealand in a world cup final next year, if he isn’t, why don’t we start looking at more talent right now while there is still time.
So enough from a grumpy England fan who has just arrived back in London after a very chilly weekend in Edinburgh. What would I like to see against France? I want Eddie to get back to what he inspired at Japan, which was a fast paced, expansive game of rugby, utilising off the top line-out ball, quick line-outs, and unleashing the likes of Joseph, May and Watson. We should stick with Ford and Farrell who are only going to get better and better together, but we need to give them the platform to operate from which is surely not Robshaw at 8 or Wigglesworth at 9 when there are so many options available.
Written by Andy Southall