God I hate being right all the time….!

Sadly, as predicted on these pages:
I think however that we will see a fairly routine victory for New Zealand by 12-15 points. I expect England to stay in touch for fifty or so minutes before the superior class of the All Blacks sees them pull away without really getting out of third gear.
Time needed for a full assessment but this was a very dreary, very poor performance.

Autumn Internationals Round Three – Welcome New Zealand

New Zealand. Land of One Tree Hill, lamb, Russel Crowe and of course, the incomparable New Zealand All Black rugby team. Now, if there is one team that a fragile England do not want to face, it is New Zealand. If it was France pitching up tomorrow I would be certain of a home win, such is England’s capacity to upset the French against the odds. But New Zealand? Forget it. Whilst England have at some time managed to hold dominance over all other nations, they have never managed it against New Zealand. Even at their 2002-2003 peak, England could muster only only two narrow victories against the All Blacks. This England team are far from any kind of peak. The stats don’t lie. England have never beaten New Zealand in a World Cup match, their win ratio against New Zealand is less than 19%, over the last 10 tests between the two sides the aggregate points score is England 138 – New Zealand 290. Ouch. Yes, England are truly New Zealand’s bitch. Why? Are New Zealand just inherantly better than England? What makes them so hard for us to beat? I think partly it is because we just don’t play them enough, and when England do play them, they don’t just play the team, they play the myth, the aura. Deep down they don’t believe they can win. Can this change tomorrow? Well, there is some crumb of comfort for England that this All Blacks team are not vintage, but they are still capable of putting 30+ points on the red rose. After a week of stinging criticism of coaches and players, there is no doubt that Martin Johnson will have put a rocket under his troops. I hope so, because if the management cannot get the team up for this match then we might as well turn out the lights at Twickenham. There is also no doubt that the recalled Joe Worsley will bolster England’s defence. Worsley is a tackling machine. Just as well because he will be doing a lot of it once that funny dance is over. Simon Shaw will bring much needed aggression, bulk and ball carrying to the front five and so the pack does not look too bad. It is sad though that Tom Croft is demoted to the bench. England’s blindside was poorly defended against Argentina, but the coaches must find a way to integrate Croft’s talents into the side. If they don’t it is another black mark against them. It is in the backs and as usual, the gameplan, that England look in trouble. Surely the tactic of using Erinle as a battering ram will not work against a team of New Zealand’s calibre? But how can England give themselves a chance? Well, the cardinal rules against New Zealand are:
1) Do not kick aimlessly to their back three
2) Do not give away cheap turnovers
3) Do not kick aimlessly to their back three
There is no team on the planet better adept at converting turnovers or punishing poor kicks. No problem then, seeing as Wilkinson is kicking so well from hand and Erinle is reknowned for his boot… If England kick, they have to make sure either they make touch, or the chase is organised, fast and frantic. The breakdown is the other area where New Zealand regularly slay England. The All Blacks are past masters at slowing down and killing down opposition ball. Call it cheating, call it being smart, they just know how to bend the rules and get away with it. It is no coincidence that it is in matches where a ref reins New Zealand in at the breakdown that they struggle. So, England have to make sure that when a player goes into contact, there is a team mate there immediately to help them. They have to make sure that players hit rucks with the ferocity of the damned to clear out All Black poachers. If they do this then maybe they can get to the hour mark and still be in touch. If so, then pressure will mount on Graham Henry’s men. It is all a tall order, and one that I feel is simply beyond this combined current England setup. There is a worry that if New Zealand start well that the wheels could seriously come off the chariot and we could be in for humilation. I think however that we will see a fairly routine victory for New Zealand by 12-15 points. I expect England to stay in touch for fifty or so minutes before the superior class of the All Blacks sees them pull away without really getting out of third gear. Oh, and that man Carter to score a try.

Lewsey Wades into England Coaching Regime

The pressure on the England coaching regime is getting serious. England legend Josh Lewsey has waded in with a scathing attack to match his famous Matt Rogers tackle: “Mike Ford didn’t win anything, while John Wells never played international rugby. Wells’s achievements as a coach are terrible – what justifies these people keeping their jobs?”
What indeed. The coaches meanwhile have hit back. Brian Smith says there is no problem between his ideas and those of John Wells: “We’re a united ship on a common path. There are no issues there whatsoever.”
Really Brian? You sound like a bit like the lookout on the Titanic. Jonno must shoulder a lot of the blame for this worsening fiasco. He agreed to this coaching team. Meanwhile, supremo Rob Andrew is silent, although apparently he will be holding another of his famous reviews at the end of this misguided campaign. Watch out Jonno, the head man might be expendable but the trusty Lieutenents are bullet proof!

Despair

After the latest team announcement, all I now need is for the RFU to sell the naming rights to Twickenham and my misery will be complete.

“And a warm welcome this afternoon to the Nike Rugby @ Twickenham Stadium to watch England vs the All Blacks.”

Erinle Selection

The selection of Erinle at inside centre guarantees that, apart from a couple of inside passes to Cueto hitting the line from fullback, the ball is going to get to 12 and no further.

To be fair, despite Geraghty at 12, in the past couple of games the ball wasn’t exactly being fired out wide but here is England’s colours nailed firmly to the flagpole.

Where are the game breakers?

We have the cutlasses but wherefore art the rapiers?

Not to mention Richie McCaw and the rest of the All Black backrow who are going to have a field day playing against three blindsides.

P.S. In light of RWC 2011, are we going to gain more from Shaw playing who will be 38 then or might giving Courteney Lawes some game time have been a more prudent forward-looking policy?

Mindless Kicking

Mike popped up on our post yesterday with this comment:

I was very disappointed with all the rugby served up this weekend.
As a Welshman I’m absolutely devastated with the way our game has gone after so much hope in 2008,
but I just think it is the way the game is going today.
Teams are scared of running and so we see all this aimless kicking which is killing our game.
What do you think the future is?

Well, it’s a comfort that England are not the only guilty ones.

This is a real blot on the rugby landscape at the moment.

Sure, good tactical kicking has it’s place.

But, boy is it overused and poorly executed at the moment.

Some teams are worse than others but none more so than England.

To some extent, the now-defunct ELVs had a bad influence in further encouraging this behaviour.

But it’s time to take action.

My preferred remedy is for a scrum to be awardable to the opposition if they cleanly receive a kick on the full, valid from the 22 up to the 10 yard line or even the halfway.

Other options include:

• Extending the mark ability up to the 10 yard line or halfway
• Allowing the opposition, when cleanly taking a kick, to kick to touch and have the throw in
• A variation on the scrum solution whereby the opposition get a scrum from where the ball was kicked

But here’s the rub. We don’t want to rein in kicking completely. A huge raking touchfinder can be a thing of beauty. And no-one wants to remove the thrill of a succession of Garryowen’s raining down on opposition full-backs in a swirling wind at Lansdowne Road.

Here are some thoughts from others:

Peter Bills in the Irish Independent

Robert Kitson in the Guardian

Dave Stewart’s thoughts over at SA Rugby Referees

Can the Not-So-Sweet Chariot Swing Any Lower?

I really enjoyed the game on Saturday.

Why?

Because my money was on Argentina. With the weather forecast looming and knowledge of England’s poor out of hand kicking, I viewed the 5/1 on offer as fair game and well it proved. I laid off mid-game at 5/2, job done.

And thank goodness because without the added financial incentive, the game was utterly depressing from an England perspective.

Matt and I were at the game three years ago when we lost to Argentina at Twickenham under the gloom of the Andy Robinson years. Gloom that was perceived then as short-lived. However, except for a brief run in the RWC 2007 (very brief, mind, who can forget the depths of the pool games), this England team have gone nowhere, done nothing.

The list of complaints continues. It’s tempting not to reiterate as they’ve nearly all been said before but:

• Where’s the joy and spirit which should come with pulling on the white jersey?
• Where’s the white jersey?
• The continued poor kicking out of hand?
• Whither the rolling maul?
• On-field leadership?
• Steve Borthwick?
• Louis Deacon?
• All forwards other than Lewis Moody?
• The backs?
• Wings playing full-back?
• Quick ball?
• Playing the game as you see it?
• Looking to the bench for instructions? WTF?
• Do they practice any backs moves?
• Ford?
• Wells?
• Callard?
• Rowntree?

There is something rotten in the state of English rugby.

How hasty have we been with the likes of Ashton and Robinson? Good second-in-commands who should not have stepped up to the position of first receiver. (How ironic would it be for Andy Robinson’s Scotland to claim an English scalp in the coming Six Nations?)

No-one doubts having Martin Johnson in the picture, but he should not be head coach. We called for the heads of the two above, we called for MJ to be installed. A man who would cut to the chase. Are his hands tied? Does he know what is wrong?

We now call for action again.

The three amigos have to go – Ford, Wells & Callard. Maybe more.

Again, we have to ask the question where does Rob Andrew fit into all this? We question the whole hierarchy. The entire RFU.

If their role is to create a conveyor belt of young talent, what good if the conveyor belt dumps them into the pit of joylessness which seems to be international rugby with England.

This has to stop or an entire generation will be lost.

Welcome Argentina!!

Argentina. Land of Corned Beef, Eva Peron, the Tango, and Los Pumas rugby team. Whilst their footballing counterparts, driven by Maradonna and primadonnas, have twice won the World Cup, the Argentine rugby team has never dominated on the world stage. They face a permanent struggle in fact. They have no annual tournament to compete in (entry to the Tri-Nations in 2012 is long overdue), an amateur domestic league and their players ply their trade far and wide across Europe (mainly France, a place that has become a home from home for their top stars).
Despite this, they finished third in the 2007 World Cup and come to Twickenham ranked higher than England in the IRB rankings list.
Argentina have always produced great forwards, particularly front five forwards. Scrummaging is in their blood. Some of the forwards turned out by the Pumas are bigger and stronger than the beef cattle that roam the Humid Pampa. Their problem (like Italy) has always been finding backs who can convert possession into points. The reason for Argentina’s success over the last few years is that those backs finally appeared. The likes of Juan Martin Hernandez, Felipe Contepomi, Ignacio Corleto came on the scene and provided the dash to go with the dump trucks up front. Sadly none of these three will feature at Twickenham and the test for Argentina will be whether the new players they bring in to their back line can match the exploits of the missing stars.
Although maybe the backs won’t have to do much. The forecast is for a torrential downpour in TW1. Manna from heaven for the likes of Scelzo, Roncero, Albacete. One shudders to think what that crowd could do to England’s pack.
England’s pack. Yes. Where do we start? Forget the injury excuses. Compared to Argentina’s preparation for this match we have nothing to complain about. There was an interesting statistic on Sky’s Rugby Club last night. Against Australia, the England front five, between them, carried a total of 11 times, for a total of 11 metres gained. 11!! No wonder we are struggling to dent holes in attack if our big men are not getting over the gainline! OK so Steve Borthwick might be in the side for leadership and lineout (alledgedly). That is fine if you pick someone alongside him who is a big brute (a Danny Grewcock if you like). Louis Deacon is not that person. Presumably James Haskell and Dylan Hartley have been introduced to rectify this glaring issue. My question would be, who in this England pack is going to do the dirty work, the hard grunt around the fringes, knocking down the waves of big Argentine forwards? Joe Worsley is on the bench but I would have picked him to start this one. Still, the team is what it is.
On another note, it is disrespectful that the RFU still do not consider Argentina worthy of the same status as the other SANZAR nations when it comes to billing this match. Yes it makes it easier to get tickets, but is it not time Argentina were given some more kudos? After all they beat England on their last visit to Twickenham. Dom and I were at that match ( a depressing experience) and for the first time ever we nearly had a fight at a rugby match. With England “fans”. Who objected to us applauding good Argentina play. Sometimes free ticket allocation is not a good thing.
So who will win the game? Well, Jonny will kick the points again to keep England in touch, Argentina will probably struggle to gel and surely Shane Geraghty cannot play as badly as last week? But that rain….
I think England will sneak a win by no more than 4 points. But then I also think Los Pumas will claim another (marginally) against the odds victory to add to the impressive list of notches on their belt.

Louis Deacon – Central to the Cause

Louis Deacon plays a very important part in the England first XV hence his continued selection for the Argentina game this weekend.

His role – to make Steve Borthwick look good in comparison.

Ambition 0 Inhibition 1

On Friday and Saturday, I was having some doubts about not going.

On Sunday, boy was I pleased that I hadn’t wasted my money on that drivel.

What is so completely wrong with the setup that the same problems which beset Andy Robinson and Brian Ashton can continue to afflict the supposed clean start of Martin Johnson?

We may have an uneviable list of injuries but at the same time England are the best funded rugby country on the planet with the largest playing base.

But whilst the names filling jerseys 1-8 looked a bit shallow, there was nothing wrong with the depth of talent starting at 9 to 15.

For a backline with those names to not even threaten to score is unforgivable. The lines, the moves, where where they?

For years, the threats from the back three of any of these Southern Hemisphere sides should be a nagging deterrent to anyone thinking about kicking away possession, and yet England continue to kick away, and poorly at that, anything less than pristine position. Then when they get good ball, the forward plod away in the Leicester way as has been their wont for the past four years.

The kicking of the Callard years pales in comparison to the smarter play of the Dave Alred era.

Surely, surely, surely, the finger of suspicion has to point at John Wells, Mike Ford and Jon Callard. For too long, Wells and Ford particularly have survived whilst the figureheads have rolled.

The game next week against Argentina threatens not only to be the shit between the sandwich of big name defeats but a dour game of unambition at the same time.

Whatever happens, England aren’t going to go down in a blaze of glory that’s for sure.

What a shame it now seems that Ashton and Johnson weren’t brought together whilst Ford and Wells were sacrificed….

Where now for English rugby?

From Saturday’s game, starting places for Haskell, Hartley and Lawes might inject some much needed dynamism but the backs and the backs coach, Brian Smith, need to start delivering. Teams need to fear that gifting possession to this set of runners in any part of the field could leave them grasping at shadows.

Show some ambition or a generation of players will be wasted and a generation of fans will be lost.