So that’s that, then. Pack up your St George flags, forget those Carry Them Home hashtags. England are going home all right but they are laden down only with disappointment. A campaign that began with a gushing Take That concert in London is already over for a host nation who were ultimately little more than a forgettable warm-up act.
Hence the slight sense of melancholy that attached itself to the crowd’s pre-match mass karaoke rendition of Wonderwall last night. Even Noel Gallagher’s famously optimistic lyric – “Maybe you’re gonna be the one that saves me” – felt a week too late. Regardless of the late flood of points they stuck on the plucky amateurs of Uruguay, England were beyond salvation in terms of knockout participation.
In the circumstances England could count themselves lucky to have received the generous welcome they did from a northern audience they have all but ignored in terms of live Test match action since 1998. The only game of rugby that really mattered around here on Saturday was the Super League Grand Final across the city at Old Trafford but, contrary to some predictions, most of those who bought World Cup tickets in happier times faithfully turned up.
Had England still had something tangible for which to play, the home of Manchester City really would have rocked. The Rugby Football Union will be suitably encouraged by the clear appetite for more top-level international union north of Hounslow but none of us will ever know how rich the legacy of this World Cup would have been had the team fulfilled its part of the bargain.
It is something to mull over until 2039, which could conceivably be the next time England gets to host this tournament again. The only consolation is that the majority of those wearing white last night should have another chance in four years’ time, when the harsh lessons of this deflating experience will surely be a powerful motivating force. George Ford, Henry Slade, Anthony Watson and Jack Nowell have too much talent not to make an impact on the global stage at some point. From that perspective Saturdaynight’s dead rubber was not entirely devoid of meaning. Stuart Lancaster wanted his players to leave a decent last impression before they slipped quietly out of the back door of the Rovers Return and one or two took the hint. Danny Care added some zip around the fringes, Slade added languid class to the midfield and Nowell fizzed with industry. It cannot have been easy for any of them to sit and watch their team fall short in the games that really mattered.
The 22-year-old Slade was turned over once early on in the game but otherwise made a mockery of his omission from previous matchday squads, his deft distribution a consistent highlight. Nowell and Watson would have enjoyed even more freedom had England been more direct inside him; the selection of Owen Farrell at 12 did not noticeably improve his side’s ability to storm the gain line on a regular basis.
How much more interesting it would have been to see George Ford, Slade and Jonathan Joseph form a complementary midfield triangle from the start rather than for 20 minutes at the end. The Uruguayan defence simply fanned out across the field and challenged England to find inventive ways of getting through; other than Watson’s high-velocity chase of Nowell’s chip and Nick Easter’s two short-range first-half rumbles they struggled to do so.
Easter is the third-oldest try-scorer in World Cup history, one of those stats which give the lie to Lancaster’s insistence that this is still a young, inexperienced England team. Age is just a number in the programme as far as the Harlequins No8 is concerned; it is scarcely his fault that, after Ben Morgan and the injured Billy Vunipola, England have yet to locate a younger, more dynamic alternative whom their coaches trust sufficiently.
That may well change once Wasps’ Fijian-qualified No8 Nathan Hughes becomes eligible for England; on Saturday’s evidence there may yet be other changes to the red rose back row going forward. Chris Robshaw and James Haskell never give anything less than maximum effort but made far too many handling errors; had the Uruguayans not run out of steam in the second half, England might have struggled to reach their half-century.
On this occasion no one could blame the game-day coaching input of Graham Rowntree and Andy Farrell, both of whom were banned from the dressing room. Whether the tracksuited duo, or indeed Lancaster, are back for the start of the Six Nations Championship remains to be seen. Either way, this cannot be the last time for 20 years that England stage a big union gig for their friends in the north.
