There will be blood. Of course there will. You don’t fumble your own World Cup without even getting to the end of the pool stage and then survive.
Twickenham will have their postmortem as they always do, but long before Ian Ritchie, the chief executive, hands down their verdict I suspect Stuart Lancaster will have fallen on his sword. What then? Well, I hope those who appoint England’s on-field leaders have a look at their own situation. They also have to work out who they want rather than chase after anyone who puts up his hand and says he wants the job.
In Lancaster they picked a good man – if one whose coaching had not been fired in the furnaces of top-level international club rugby – and alongside him were assembled three assistants who, in their Test careers, have been learning on the job. On Saturday night, in Michael Cheika, they faced a man with silverware to his name in both Heineken Cup and Super Rugby. A coach who is less than a year into the job has done the job.
Ultimately, as happened against Wales and as has become something of a theme, Lancaster was undone by his selection, particularly the bench. Jonny May’s unfortunate injury at half‑time exposed the lack of wide cover. George Ford came on, which helped with England’s ambition, but the most creative of the fly-halves was left with the only creative centre moving out to the wing.
Then, when Brad Barritt went off, Owen Farrell finished up at outside‑centre, a position he may have played at some time in his career but not to my knowledge recently. And it showed, Matt Giteau ending the 20-minute, second-half window of resistance with Australia’s third try.
It might have been worse had Australia’s replacement fly-half, Nick Phipps, been as accurate as the man he replaced. We all knew it would come down to two issues: could England deny Australia the ball at the set piece and stop their back row from robbing them of possession at the breakdown? On both counts the answer was no. By full time Australia had won – if my maths are correct – seven scrum penalties and Michael Hooper and David Pocock had been responsible for the bulk of the nine turnovers. No wonder Lancaster looked so glum while Cheika punched the air as Giteau went over for the third and final try to make it a 20-point win and the Wallabies’ biggest at Twickenham.
The conundrum, as always with Australia, was the scrum: would it be of the collapsable variety that had put England on the front foot so often in the past, or had Cheika and his scrum guru, Mario Ledesma, at last found a front row?
For almost as long as World Cups have been played, Australian scrums have been a hot topic, either because the Wallabies have caved in, as they did most notably in Marseilles in 2007, or because they found a way of pulling the wool over the eyes of a succession of referees, as they managed for much of the final of 2003, when Andre Watson’s whistle kept Australia in the game.
In the runup towards Saturday night there were the usual nudges and whispers as to the legality of what Joe Marler might be up to – usually a sign of Australian doubts – and whether Roman Poite’s reputation as a referee normally able to spot the pack in charge was justified. It was long before full time that Marler was gone and scrum penalties were falling like autumn leaves, only to Australia not England. On one occasion Stephen Moore even opted for a scrum rather than a free kick and promptly won a full penalty. The biter bit.
Given that there are so few scrums these days, they are invested considerable weight of importance, and not without reason. Going backward at scrum time is not only massively tiring, it’s also massively damaging to confidence. Conversely nothing does more for a side’s morale – and I mean all 23 of them, plus the coaches – than having your opponents under the cosh.
Well by half time last night there were a massive eight scrums and Australia felt they were already beginning to get the upper hand. While things had been equal those two open-side flankers in the back row had to remain honest and do their share of the pushing and shoving. Once Australia were in the ascendancy, then Hooper and Pocock spent even more time hunting down England’s runners and imposing even more control over the breakdown.
By then Lancaster already looked a beaten man and was clearly suffering. The week ahead before England pitch tents and leave their five-star training camp to others will be hard. I just hope those whose decisions will put the next man/men in place learn from the anguish.
