Late on Saturday night, after the lights had gone out on England’s Calcutta Cup nightmare, a rich golden glow bathed the wintry Twickenham turf. Long rows of lamps had been wheeled on to the pitch to resuscitate the grass prior to this weekend’s visit of Italy and, frankly, Eddie Jones’s team look in need of similar revitalisation after their darkest home Six Nations loss in decades.
It is important to say from the outset how well a controlled, smart Scotland side performed in the 150th anniversary edition of the world’s oldest international fixture. In truth this was an 11-6 thrashing which reflected huge credit on the entire visiting side but, as a sage colleague noted, did wearing “heritage” kit also compel England to play like 19th-century amateurs? Scotland fully deserved this first success in south-west London since 1983 but there has not been a poorer display in the Six Nations under Jones, home or away.
In some ways this is not the worst development for rugby more generally. Not only does it lend a fresh slant to this season’s championship equation but it also undermines the supposed wisdom that brute force and blinkered tactics are the only way to win important matches. While Gregor Townsend’s team never cut loose on a cool, damp evening, this was barely a contest in terms of quick thinking, clever execution and positive vibes.
If this were a one-off aberration from an English perspective it might be possible to dwell on the rustiness of the Saracens contingent, the absence of supporters and a clutch of missing forwards. But the truth is that Jones’s obsession with collisions, aerial bombs and eliminating risk has steered his team down a stifling tactical cul-de-sac. England have pretty much stopped playing instinctive rugby and, when they encounter opponents unwilling to be bullied physically, they struggle to escape their own straitjacket.
It was the same against France in December and not dissimilar, against far stronger foes, in the 2019 World Cup final against South Africa. The easy thing to do would be to point fingers at the players but more deep-rooted factors are clearly at play. Jones keeps talking about bolting on backline refinements to a powerful basic chassis but at the moment no one is being permitted to release the handbrake.
There are several other contributory factors – the departed Scott Wisemantel was a significant loss and another Australian, the skills coach Jason Ryles, has been prevented by Covid-19 from relocating to the UK – but blaming Saturday’s mess on Jones’s sub-ordinates Simon Amor and the newly recruited Ed Robinson would be unfair. While England’s try-line remains hard to pierce under John Mitchell’s tutelage, it is their one-dimensional mindset generally that is increasingly the problem.
Compare and contrast the invention of Finn Russell, the poise of the new cap Cameron Redpath and the blazing purpose of the Scotland captain, Stuart Hogg, with the travails of their opposite numbers Owen Farrell, Ollie Lawrence and Elliot Daly. Farrell, a couple of excellent kicking interventions aside, generally wore the frown of an actor woodenly trying to recite the dodgy lines forced on him by his director. Lawrence, who did not receive a pass until the 63rd minute, was pretty much a spectator while Daly, as with all his fellow Saracens, looked in need of a warm-up game or two.
On top of everything else Townsend has now presented every other nation with the perfect blueprint for beating England. Don’t let them settle, stay disciplined (Scotland won the penalty count 15-6), vary the point of attack, put little diagonal kicks in behind and make your tackles and England will struggle to hurt you unless you make a mistake or have a clearance kick charged down.
All this should provide food for thought for Warren Gatland, the British & Irish Lions head coach. If Billy Vunipola and Farrell are going to be key men in this summer’s series against South Africa, assuming it happens, they can ill afford to be as sluggish again. Jones is stubbornly resistant to picking on club form but someone like Sam Simmonds would have brought some much needed energy. Starting George Ford at 10 and introducing the lively Paolo Odogwu, Harry Randall and Jack Willis into the 23 against Italy should help but what then happens against Wales in round three? If the undercooked Farrell is gently eased back to 12, how will that aid Lawrence’s development?
Scotland need only bother about producing more of the same against Wales at Murrayfield, where Gatland will discover if the try-scorer Duhan van der Merwe and the influential Hamish Watson, Scott Cummings, Jonny Gray and George Turner are as good as England made them look. The last time the Scots won away anywhere on an opening championship weekend was 1998, after which they lost all their remaining fixtures. That feels unlikely this year and, suddenly, finishing above England in the table is a realistic target.
