There was an endearing energy among England’s squad members as they milled about after this first warm-up for the World Cup – young men fired by an intensity of longing scarcely conceivable to those outside the circle yet restrained by the knowledge that to let it run riot would be to break the balance of the team and thus see the very thing longed for taken away.
One can see this energy again and again in the warm-up matches but it is more poignant still in the aftermath of each contest, as players weigh up how the match went for them. Could they have done more? Should they have done less?
They have endured murderous training camps. Someone like Ben Morgan has been flogged in a bubble of sweat all his own, as he tries to regain fitness after his terrible injury seven months ago. He was given his prearranged 40 minutes. Will he be given any more before the final squad is announced? Danny Cipriani came on for a precious half-hour – just as England’s set-piece woes kicked in. It meant he touched the ball only once. Afterwards both men were models of humility and earnestness – and beneath that, no doubt, acute anxiety.
One man eloquent on the lot of the auditionee was Alex Goode, for whom this warm-up was an unqualified success. “It’s tough,” he said. “Early on the ball didn’t really come my way. You just have to bide your time and make sure you’re alert when your opportunity does come. You certainly can’t go off on your own agenda, because you’ll get found out and you don’t help the team in any way.”
Received wisdom is that Goode and Cipriani are vying for a single place in the final 31, one – Goode – a full-back who can play fly-half, the other a fly-half who can play full-back. As a regular England player over the past few seasons Goode already had a foot in the door, which now must be a leg, arm and half a torso. In the first half he was the fulcrum, albeit understated, of a back three that emerged from the match as the unit most in credit. Then, at the start of the second half, he had a golden five minutes that has probably sealed his place.
His footwork in pulling the French out of place was as bewitching as ever but it is the way he loiters as an auxiliary playmaker that must most unsettle defences. When Owen Farrell pulled the ball back to him from one ruck, his intention was to pass but a split second was all it took for him to reassess, realign and send across a pinpoint kick for Jonny May to score England’s third try. At that point he was pulled off, that broiling torture of the ambitious team player now just a gentle simmer.
For May, too, the demons of the last few months were eased. He was dropped during the Six Nations, his evident pace and muscularity undermined by an apparent lack of composure. The catharsis of that try was plain to see but there were other touches, notably the assist for Anthony Watson’s second, that suggested he is growing as a player.
“There hasn’t been a day go by when I haven’t thought back to being dropped,” he said. “I’ve been working my arse off to get another opportunity and I’m pleased to have been able to put it right. But it’s time to close that chapter off now and look forward. There’s a long way to go yet.”
The match award, though, went to Watson, following his brace. Those who know him well have long whispered in awe about his pace and footwork and the player they predict he will become. After a Test introduction also troubled by issues of composure, we are starting to see that player emerge. And, in mitigation of the composure deficit, he is only 21. His footwork to beat Brice Dulin, France’s best full-back, albeit playing on the wing here, for his first try was every bit the measure of those hushed accolades. “I just saw Dulin had planted his feet,” he said. “I didn’t really acknowledge who it was. He gave me the outside and that is something you relish as a back-three player.”
For all the anguish being suffered elsewhere, England’s back three, or at least the five squad members who will cover it, is as settled an area as any. May, Watson and Goode excelled against France. Stuart Lancaster has already reduced his winger-count to three, so May, Watson and Jack Nowell are basically assured of their places in the squad, as is Mike Brown at full-back. Goode seems set to join them. But the nail-biting of the selflessly ambitious is set to continue elsewhere.
