1) England must think laterally
England, as they had done so frustratingly against France last month, persisted in moving slow ball wide, failing to put their wings into sufficient space. It was only when Sam Burgess came off the bench to straighten the line that they, in the parlance of the times, earned the right to play. Burgess has undoubted footballing nous, together with skill, that makes up for his lack of union experience. However, with the scrum once again an issue for Stuart Lancaster’s men and the breakdown disorganised, England would profit from starting with Owen Farrell at outside-half and then bringing on George Ford with the artillery when the game against Wales starts to break up.
2) Importance of the bench
One of England’s plans going into the match was for the bench to make a crucial difference in the final quarter. Stuart Lancaster had game-changing options in Billy Vunipola, Joe Launchbury, Farrell and Burgess, while Fiji were relatively weak in reserve. The plan worked and delivered a bonus point that the overall performance did not merit, but England have come to make a habit of strong finishes. The question for Lancaster is whether the finishers should be starters, but for him it is about a 22 (he clearly has little faith in the back-up hookers to Tom Youngs), not the starting 15.
3) Break down at the breakdown
Fiji forced 11 turnovers while conceding four, a statistic that will vex Lancaster even more than the three scrums that were lost on England’s feed. Starting Geoff Parling in the second row for his lineout expertise means forfeiting the impact in the loose made by Joe Launchbury and there were times when the ball-carrier was isolated. Fiji are more unorthodox than Wales with and without the ball, but England’s strategy lacked coherence: playing out wide behind the gainline without space is a recipe for a turnover.
4) Mauling can be a good thing
If England had set out to show they had an attacking game to compare with the best, it was an old favourite that helped them establish early dominance after they had won a fortunate penalty at the first scrum. There is a new directive on what defending teams may do to counteract a rolling maul, but Fiji were unaware of it and England’s first try showed a speed of thought they too often lacked in the opening hour. It illustrated the point that back to basics is not always regressive.
5) Too many TMO breaks
Has a directive been issued to referees that every try scored against England must be automatically referred to the Television Match Official? Fiji are entitled to ask Jaco Peyper why he did not refer Mike Brown’s second try for review after the replay on the big screen. After all, he used it to check the try he had awarded Nikola Matawalu in the first half and Jonny May’s pass to Owen Farrell in the build-up merited a second look. Tom Wood was fortunate to escape a yellow card two days after coaches had been told that challenges around the neck would be greeted with a trip to the sin-bin more often than not, and while the crowd, at least, got the outcome it wanted, a match that lasted 100 minutes had little to say to the unconverted.
