International rugby has become a black and white world with a trace of gold and green. Eighteen months after going down under to Australia at Twickenham and out of the World Cup, England stand second to New Zealand in the world rankings having broken any number of records under the Tasmanian who was lured from Cape Town’s Stormers to mop up after a storm.
From the ashes of a campaign in which England became the first hosts to exit at the group stage has come a world record-equalling run of Test victories for a tier-one nation, back-to-back Six Nations titles, the breaking of an 82-year record for successive victories in the championship, a 3-0 whitewashing of Australia on tour and the respect of the All Blacks.
Defeat in Dublin last weekend meant New Zealand’s record of 18 straight victories was not broken and England did not become the first side to record back-to-back grand slams in the Six Nations era, and for a side still in the building process it was a just outcome. As they failed to adapt quickly to Italy’s tactics after a tackle, so they were unable to overcome Ireland slowing down their ball at the breakdown, not least by stopping players getting back on their feet quickly.
Problem-solving is the next phase of the programme. Eddie Jones recognised when he arrived in England that what the team needed was not an overhaul but fine tuning. Last week he again paid tribute to his predecessor, acknowledging that Stuart Lancaster had rebuilt the squad after another ruinous World Cup and not had the opportunity to finish what he started, but the past 15 months have revealed a profound difference between the pair that has allowed the team to breathe in rarefied air rather than wheeze.
After England had been knocked out of the 2015 World Cup and Lancaster’s position looked untenable Jones, who was then in charge of Japan, said the position of head coach of the largest and most affluent rugby union in the world needed someone of experience who would not be spooked by media heckling and had shoulders broad enough to keep external pressure off the players.
As someone who had been involved in three World Cups – with Australia in 2003, South Africa four years later and Japan in 2015, enduring only two defeats – and had been a coach for most of the professional era,he was laying down his credentials for the post, even if he insisted that the view of Table Mountain he enjoyed from his office at the Stormers was not one he wished to swap for a room at England’s training base in Bagshot. The lure of another World Cup campaign swayed him and rare has been the week when he has not mentioned the tournament.
Jones wrote a column for a rugby website before the 2013 Lions tour in which he outlined his coaching philosophy, one he has not diverted from four years on and which explains how he has changed England. When he was appointed, the former South Africa second-row Bakkies Botha, a 2007 World Cup winner who was on the losing side to Jones’s Japan eight years later in Brighton, said: “As a coach, Eddie is about cleverness, not brutality or strength. You get a surprise package with him.”
The first surprise was that Jones opted for a midfield that did not include a gainline basher, something that had become de rigueur at the top level. He has deviated from that only twice with England: in the first Test in Australia when he moved Owen Farrell back to outside-half and started Luther Burrell at inside-centre, only to change his mind 30 minutes in and switch Farrell back to 12 and bring George Ford off the bench; and against Italy last month when he started Ben Te’o at outside-centre in place of Jonathan Joseph.
“Too many centres have come up through the age groups where size has been everything,” Jones wrote four years ago. “Just because they can smash their way over the gainline, coaches don’t seem to require them to work on their passing. That neglect of young players has repercussions. It stifles a lot of attacks when they graduate to senior level. Rugby needs to change. We have to get that big 100kg schoolboy centre to practise 50 passes a day. Passing is not a chore but a skill to be nurtured. I don’t care how good your players think they are, they almost certainly are not good enough. Fruit and veg and 50 passes a day. It’s good for them. And they will be much better players at the end of it. They might even be able to run in an overlap without smashing a defender to pieces.”
And so he has persisted with Ford at outside-half, apart from one match when he did not waste time admitting he had been wrong, Farrell at 12 and Jonathan Joseph at 13. The trio combined in the opening half against Scotland last week to seal victory with three tries from lineouts that owed everything to speed, subtlety and cunning and nothing to brute force, and it was Ford and Farrell who combined in Cardiff when the match looked lost to create the winning try for Elliot Daly.
Ford was dropped for the match against Wales in the 2015 World Cup and England’s attacking strategy became incoherent. A common failing for England since they won the 2003 World Cup against Jones’s Australia has been selection, an area in which Jones has been strong. He said four years ago that a successful side needed a strong spine at full-back, outside-half, scrum-half, hooker and No8, positions he has rarely tinkered with since succeeding Lancaster.
Dylan Hartley has started all 18 matches under Jones, Mike Brown and Ford 17 and Ben Youngs 14. Billy Vunipola has missed six through injury and unavailability. The only voluntary changes Jones has made in the positions against tier-one opposition have been relegating Ford to the bench for the first Test in Australia and picking Danny Care ahead of Ben Youngs three times, including his first match in charge, in Scotland last year.
In contrast the spine changed constantly under Lancaster. In the 20 months up to the World Cup defeat by Australia only Brown was a consistent pick. Farrell started out at 10, lost his place to Ford and then regained it; Youngs was initially behind Lee Dickson and then struggled to see off the challenge of Care; Hartley made way at times for Tom Youngs and Rob Webber; and Billy Vunipola had 16 starts to Ben Morgan’s 10. A strong spine has allowed England to stand taller and, when they are fully upright, the spine itself can be looked at.
• This is an extract taken from the Breakdown, the Guardian’s weekly rugby union email. To subscribe, just visit this page and follow the instructions.
