Somewhere deep inside the psyche of English rugby there must be a masochistic streak. The harder they are pushed up against a wall, certainly in the Stuart Lancaster era, the better they tend to respond. The body language at their base in Bagshot is appreciably different to last week’s; England are angry and cannot wait to take it out on someone.
Prior to the game against Wales all the talk was of the size of the occasion and keeping calm. This time it is all about vengeance: smashing false perceptions, proving people wrong, rewriting the gloomy narrative of onrushing failure. There is a lot of talk about 2012, when England lost to South Africa one week and then came out swinging to beat New Zealand 38-21 only a week later.
There is open irritation, too, at one or two individuals outside the camp whom they feel are spreading disinformation, particularly in regards to England’s scrummaging. Members of the media were even ushered down to the sun-drenched corner of the training ground known as the “scrum garden” where Graham Rowntree delivered an impromptu tutorial in body angles under pressure. The last thing England need is for the French referee Romain Poite to start penalising Joe Marler from start to finish.
The English view is that Marler, as a loosehead, has no earthly reason to try to bore inwards on England’s own put-in because that makes it harder for his own hooker to heel the ball. Despite the way it can look from the overhead spidercam, they argue it is simply the destabilising effect of the rival tight-head trying to split the two players in front of him. On such tiny perceptions can huge games turn, which is why England hope Poite will approach Saturday with an open mind. “He’s refereed us in big games before, he’s an outstanding referee and he will not be fazed one bit by the debate going on,” said Lancaster. “Joe Marler, our scrum. It’s never been brought up as a concern before.”
The mental picture England really want to erase, however, is a tendency to lose crunch encounters. They have not always responded well to being pre-game favourites; among the reasons why they have failed to win a Six Nations title under Lancaster. When there is no other alternative but to scrap for their reputations, on the other hand, they tend to be far more effective.
Their looming showdown with Australia falls squarely into that latter category and Lancaster freely admits it is “the biggest game” of his coaching career. In that regard, there is no disguising English gratitude that Jonathan Joseph and Ben Youngs have both been passed fit enough to play. Joseph feels a little fortunate – “for some lucky reason I’ve healed very well” – to have recovered from his pectoral muscle injury, while Youngs has also satisfied the medical staff his injured ankle is fine.
Without Courtney Lawes and Billy Vunipola, though, a lot of expectation has come to rest on the shoulders of Joe Launchbury and Ben Morgan, along with Owen Farrell and Brad Barritt, who have been preferred to George Ford and Sam Burgess respectively. If this midfield looks better balanced than a week ago, there is still no place in the match-day 23 for Henry Slade, who must be starting to wonder why he was selected in the first place.
The elevation of George Kruis and Nick Easter to the bench, with James Haskell missing out altogether, also reflects the likelihood of Morgan not lasting the entire 80 minutes but Lancaster disputes the theory that when Ford does not start England are less of a threat to defences: “There’s a black and white assumption that if George Ford plays we play fantastic creative attacking rugby and when Owen Farrell plays we don’t. I don’t subscribe to that view, personally. Owen played in the Six Nations in 2014 and we scored 14 tries and played good rugby.”
As for what happens if England find themselves three points behind entering the final minutes, it is a non-issue this weekend. Nothing less than victory will do now and Lancaster has been warning his players as much without straying too far into badge-grabbing bawling. “You’ve got to be careful not to make the game so big in their minds that they can’t function. I’ve tried to direct everyone’s attention towards delivering for each other.
“It’s not American football where you have a radio link-up to the quarterback. It’s collective decision making. I know the characters in the team and I know we’ve been in this position before, come out the other side and won. I can’t ever think of a time with this team when their spirit has been broken.”
The same is true of Lancaster himself; whatever unfolds against Australia, no one can accuse him of not conducting himself with honesty and integrity under fire, even when the questions take on a personal edge.
Beneath his calm demeanour, though, lurks a competitive animal with no wish to be remembered as a nice guy who too often finished second.
“Australia might be great ball in hand but they’ve got to be able to defend as well and that’s where we’ll go for them. Their second Bledisloe Cup game this summer was a 40-point [41-13] victory for New Zealand. We’ve played New Zealand, we’ve played Australia and many other teams and we’ve never been in that position.”
A wounded England side have not bristled with this much intent for a while.
