Another week, another defeat. While a loss, or four, against the All Blacks can be explained, understood and forgiven, England’s fans, and players, expected better against South Africa, especially after the thumping the Bokke got in Ireland last week. As did Stuart Lancaster. There was a reason why he stuck, so far as injuries allowed, with the same team he put out against New Zealand. He wanted to give the players the opportunity to prove themselves, to play better, against other opposition.
If anything, however, England were even worse than they were last Saturday. In the first half especially it was difficult to pick out any areas where they had improved. They have 10 games to play between now and the World Cup and watching them only those who love a long-shot would want to back them to win the thing.
As against New Zealand, England had more possession and more control of the territory. In the first half they had two-thirds of the first and three-quarters of the second. Their return from it all amounted to six points, two penalties from Owen Farrell. It was almost as though South Africa were happy to let them have the ball, secure in the knowledge that they could defend against anything England could throw at them.
After 20 minutes, England were 10-0 down and Twickenham was as quiet as it has been at any time in recent memory. Then, an opportunity. Danny Care seized on the ball as it broke loose from a ruck and flicked it on to Dave Attwood. He set off for the corner, a carthorse in a cross-country dash, when he should, instead, have passed to the men outside him, Farrell and Anthony Watson. He left it too late and England had blown a three-on-one overlap.
No matter. They kept the ball and play flowed straight on into another phase. Care whipped a pass across the other side of the field to Kyle Eastmond. England had another three-on-one overlap with Jonny May at the end of it on the right touchline. Eastmond tried to find him with a high, hanging pass. He missed. Again England had made of a mess of an opportunity.
Their backline is, at the moment, a mess and the very men Lancaster has put at the heart of his team are letting him down. The axis of No8, scrum-half and fly-half is not working. Billy Vunipola played so poorly in the first 40 minutes – he made three knock-ons – that they yanked him off just after half-time. That done, Lancaster now has to decide whether to stick or twist when it comes to Farrell and Care. The odds are that George Ford and Ben Youngs will start against Samoa next Saturday.
There was, as Andy Farrell said, “a hell of a lot of good stuff” about the way England played. But it was all up front. Their scrum was solid, their lineout secure, even if, as the referee, Steve Walsh, said, South Africa bossed the breakdown.
The forwards seemed to give up on the backs altogether in the second-half when England were a man up after Victor Matfield had been sent to the sin-bin. They decided to do it their way instead, in the old England style, and scored two tries from lineout drives, the second of them thanks, largely, to brilliant work from Vunipola’s replacement, Ben Morgan, who bucked and spun like a bull after a kick in the backside as he barged through four tacklers to get to the line. There was a terrific intensity about the way England played in that 10-minute spell.
What they lacked, Lancaster admitted, was a measure of intelligence and control in their backline and the responsibility for that had to fall on the half-backs. “You wouldn’t criticise the players’ efforts,” he said. “But sometimes they need to be smarter, and manipulate the backfield to give us better position.”
Such smarts are something a player either has instinctively or learns with experience accrued over a career. There is not enough time between now and the World Cup for Farrell, in particular, to develop his game management. The alternative, Ford, has even less experience so unless Lancaster wants to call up a player who has served his time in club rugby, such as Danny Cipriani or Stephen Myler, he has two choices. He either carries on backing Farrell, in the belief his form will pick up, or he turns to Ford in the hope that his natural talent will carry him through.
Dropping Farrell for Ford may turn out to be the spur that the Saracens fly-half needs. Certainly, he is making too many sloppy mistakes at the moment, such as the re-start that went straight into touch and in broken play, he too often took the wrong decision. He kicked when he should have passed, twice booting away possession when his backline were calling for the ball and once ran when he should have kicked, making the curious call to go from underneath his own posts.
Farrell looked a better fit at fly-half when he had Billy Twelvetrees alongside him to share the decision-making. Eastmond has quick feet and a keen for eye for a gap, but he is not nearly so accomplished as a playmaker. Twelvetrees played a similar role to the one England’s attacking skills coach, Mike Catt, once performed for Jonny Wilkinson. Watching England over the past fortnight, you cannot but wonder what Catt makes of the way they are playing, not to mention how much input he is allowed to have into the team’s selection and style of play.
