At this stage last year Stuart Lancaster used the analogy of a clock face to measure England’s overall progress. His side, he reckoned, were at 10 o’clock with the aim of hitting a peak of 11 or 12 o’clock by 2015. On Saturday night the obvious question was duly posed: where do England now sit after their emotionally taxing autumn?
A rueful smile crossed Lancaster’s face. “About 10.15,” replied the head coach, fully aware time is ticking away before next year’s World Cup. The host nation could yet be the best team in the world by 2019 but such pipe-dreams are irrelevant at present. Far more pressing is the need to find a consistent winning formula in 2015 and Saturday’s forward-based victory – perhaps the biggest relief of Lancaster’s entire tenure – illustrated England’s best means of doing so.
As every good coach knows, a key component of success is to find a game plan best suited to the players available. If, as England proved against the Wallabies, you have a pack shunting the opposition around and a fine tactical kicker at No10, attempting to weave pretty patterns in midfield is a bonus. To accelerate Lancaster’s progression clock there is a simple solution: stop trying to copy New Zealand and revert to what English sides have traditionally done best.
This “back to the future” approach may sound regressive and, in some ways, it is. But if this autumn has taught the management one thing, it is that over-cluttering the minds of their squad is counter-productive. They will bump into far stiffer Six Nations scrums than that offered by the Wallabies but Lancaster now knows what is possible if his side can stick to the game’s time-honoured basics: scrum hard, maul harder, kick accurately and defend until the pips start to squeak.
It is the oldest of manifestos but against Australia, who happen to be sharing England’s World Cup pool next year, it duly gained its reward. “If you get your defence right, then ultimately they run out of energy, you turn them over, you put pressure on them and you win the game,” confirmed Lancaster. “That was the plan. In the New Zealand and South Africa games we probably deviated from that. Perhaps with hindsight I should have been a little bit stronger about making clear what [the plan] is. We played a far more intelligent game today, that suited our strengths.”
In the process the prospect of an all-singing, all-dancing England side in 2015 has become increasingly fanciful. If Lancaster had a 12 with the all-round game of Australia’s classy Matt Toomua it might be different but, as Saturday’s fluctuating contest proved, there is more than one way to skin a wallaby.
When England get on the front foot, with Ben Morgan on the charge, they are hard to repel. With Dan Cole, Alex Corbisiero, Mako Vunipola, Tom Youngs, Geoff Parling, Joe Launchbury, Tom Croft and Manu Tuilagi – all of them British Lions – to come back into the squad, a shortage of beef is definitely not the problem.
Add in George Ford’s ability to read the game and the commitment and work-rate of Chris Robshaw, Joe Marler, Courtney Lawes and Brad Barritt and, given better luck with injuries, there is enough to paper over the continuing midfield cracks, which Billy Twelvetrees received insufficient ball to remedy. No one is suggesting a flawed win over a Wallaby side that will bounce back stronger next year is a quantum leap but defeat would have had huge complications for Lancaster: “I didn’t think it was going to be the doomsday scenario some of you guys made it out to be but in my mind I was thinking what it would have meant.”
Now, instead, he can dwell on what might yet happen if England’s tactical improvement at half-back continues and his players remain injury-free between now and England’s opening Six Nations fixture in Wales. His forwards are improving as a set-piece unit – “I wouldn’t go as far as to say take on all-comers but we could pick two different packs that’d be very strong,” said Lancaster – and, despite a 50% win ratio in 12 Tests in 2014, England’s finishing strike-rate is also slightly up.
In 2013 they scored 23 in 11 Tests (15 of them against Argentina) compared with 28 in 12 Tests this time. “We have two exciting wingers now and we don’twant just to defend all the time,” Lancaster said. “Of our 26 tries prior to the weekend, 21 were by the backs and 13 by the back three. I don’t think we are a one-trick side. What I’d like to have at our disposal, like the All Blacks, is a different strategy for different opposition. We need to make sure we’ve got all the tools in the box and pick the right one at the right time.”
The most abiding English memory of this November, however, will not be Morgan’s two forceful tries on Saturday, nor even Jonny May’s spectacular scorcher against the All Blacks. Rather it will be the indecision and infuriating game management that compromised the displays against New Zealand, South Africa and Samoa and forced the home team into an unenviable corner before the Wallaby fixture.
“I wouldn’t want to be in that position again if I’m being honest,” admitted Lancaster, reflecting on the run of five defeats between June and mid-November. It has also done little for the Six Nations starting prospects of Danny Care, Owen Farrell and Billy Vunipola; if the head coach could rewind the clock he would surely have picked Ford at 10 against the All Blacks. It could yet be, however, that a problematic November has shown England the best way forward.
England Brown (Harlequins); Watson (Bath), Barritt (Saracens; Yarde, Harlequins, 78), Twelvetrees (Gloucester; Farrell, Saracens, 67), May (Gloucester); Ford (Bath), B Youngs (Leicester; Wigglesworth, Saracens, 69); Marler (Harlequins; Mullan, Wasps, 53), Hartley (Northampton; Webber, Bath, 71), Wilson (Bath; Brookes, Newcastle, 60), Attwood (Bath), Lawes (Northampton; Kruis, Saracens, 53), Wood (Northampton; Haskell, Wasps, 77), Robshaw (Harlequins, capt), Morgan
(Gloucester).
Tries Morgan 2. Cons Ford 2. Pens Ford 4.
Australia Folau (NSW Waratahs); Speight (ACT Brumbies; Beale, Waratahs, 63), Ashley-Cooper (Waratahs), Toomua (Brumbies), Horne (Waratahs); Foley (Waratahs; Cooper, Queensland Reds, 45), Phipps (Waratahs; White, Brumbies, 49); Slipper (Reds; Robinson, Waratahs, 67), Fainga’a (Reds; Hanson, Reds, 72), Kepu (Waratahs; Alexander, Brumbies, 51), Carter (Brumbies), Simmons (Reds; Jones, Melbourne Rebels, h-t), McMahon (Melbourne Rebels; Skelton, Waratahs, 58) , Hooper (Waratahs, capt), McCalman (Western Force).
Tries Foley, Skelton. Cons Foley, Cooper. Pens Foley 3.
Referee J Garces (France). Att: 82,049.
