All year England have been a team who find themselves in arm wrestles and last weekend was no different. They get themselves into tight matches that are still in the balance in the final few minutes – it has almost become the trademark of this team. They’ve played eight matches against tier one nations and the aggregate margin has been 27 points. The biggest margin has been against Scotland, when they lost by nine, but the rest have been decided by a score or less.
That tells me that England have adopted a certain mindset this year but, based on the evidence, they are not very good at winning tight matches. The ledger reads won three, lost five so my question is, do England need to find a way to get better at winning tight matches? Or do they find another way to win matches? My opinion is that they should go for the latter.
Instead of closing out games, England need to find another gear. Change the mindset from closing out matches to one of continuing to play, to keep applying pressure. This year they have only scored more than 30 points on one occasion, a match they lost against France. On average this year, they score 21.5 points which simplifies things for the opposition – score 22 points or more and they are more than likely to win. It sounds like a really simple thing to say but England need to score more points. The only times the opposition has scored more than 21 points and lost are when Italy did so on the opening weekend of the Six Nations and Ireland, later in the tournament, when it took a last-gasp drop goal by Marcus Smith to defeat them.
And what really strikes me is that it would suit the make-up of this England team. You look at the first-choice backline and it is set up to run, so why don’t they try to run teams off the pitch? The best teams do it. South Africa are an anomaly in that they’re very good at it, but also very good at blowing teams away at the set-piece, so there is no point trying to copy what they do, they are unique. But France and Ireland go out and chase tries. I’m biased because I used to play on the wing but I believe scoring tries is the hardest skill. It’s not a surprise that the best teams are the ones who are best at scoring tries and England’s energy needs to be focused on that if they are to realise their potential.
I do wonder if it is a product of the World Cup campaign. That was thrown together at short notice and Steve Borthwick set out to create a team that was hard to beat and could grind out wins. They are still hard to beat but perhaps it has taken a while for the mindset to shift from eking out wins to putting opponents away in the final quarter. There are grounds for optimism based on how England began against New Zealand, however; the manner in which Smith began things with a cross-kick to get Twickenham off their feet. The challenge is to finish matches with the same attitude. England have pointed to their discipline in the last 20 minutes but that is telling because you are always more likely to give away penalties when defending rather than attacking.
It will be difficult for England on Saturday because there is a real expectation that they will blow Australia away. They suffered a record defeat by Argentina, they had a poor Rugby Championship, the suspicion is that they are in decline but their results do not align with the quality in their team. Based on their last two Rugby Championship matches, I see a team that is starting to click; a team who will play from deep, who will come to Twickenham to play. If the public are thinking Australia will arrive ready to have their tummy tickled they are in for a surprise.
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The British & Irish Lions narrative also adds some spice to Saturday’s fixture. The Lions launched their jersey this week which is one of a number of signposts on the way to the tour. If I were an England player with designs on making the tour, I would be desperate to show the best of myself against Australia. It is a great audition, how can you fare against that style of rugby? I wouldn’t be talking about it publicly but after training, when I’m going to bed and looking at my analysis and preparing, there would be a slightly different purpose, knowing that this match could count for something extra further down the track, safe in the knowledge that Andy Farrell will be watching. Maybe you are a player whose game is suited to playing against Australia more than it is, say, South Africa. A good showing on Saturday could be the perfect way to demonstrate it.
